Still Running
by QueenOfTheUniverse
Summary: Angela’s world is slowly falling apart since Jacob’s disappearance at Praetorian HQ. Leaving her job and her new friends she begins the hunt for the man she realizes she can’t live without. But if she does find him, it might not be easy to bring him home.
1. Part 1

The Net: Still Running

A/N: Just so you all know, this is about the TV show, and NOT the movie! And this is a newer edited version of the story that was already posted. It starts off just after Angela and Mariano are arrested by the FBI near the end of the episode "Zero." The song "Kentucky Rain" by Elvis was the inspiration for this story. In past stories I always thought Praetorian HQ was in a bank, but it's not, it's in a travel agency, so that's fixed here. Sorry this took so long to finish! And don't forget to post a review! Even if you've read most of this before, a few things have changed. It says I updated this in January 2007 with chapter 12, and it wasn't finished then. But after finishing it, I went back and made some chapters longer, so as of May 2007 the story is complete and there are 12 chapters, they're just longer now. If you've already posted a comment, you can still post another one(just don't sign in and you can post as many as you want!) Thanks in advance, and thanks for past comments which kept me going! You guys are awesome!

Chapter 1

Angela was led out of the Mattimoe Travel Agency in handcuffs along with Mariano and his gang after finally taking down the Praetorians and taking back her rightful identity. She looked around for some sign of Jacob. Perhaps he was in a police cruiser or perhaps he had gotten away. One look told her he wasn't in any of the cars on the scene which meant he must have gotten away.

After she had put on the orange jumpsuit they gave her upon entering the prison, she was ushered down a long corridor of jail cells, all of them filled with women wearing the same jumpsuit. They took her to the last one and slid the barred door open.

"Here you go, Missy. You're lucky. You get a cell all to yourself" the guard said before pushing her inside and sliding the barred door closed.

Angela stood there, staring out into the hall, holding onto the bars, wondering where Jacob was. If he hadn't already been caught, arrested, and sent to prison, then for sure he must have escaped. This meant that he could get her out of jail and Mariano and his friends too! But how would he do it?

* * *

Angela sighed and went to sit on the small cot in her cell. Who knew just how he would get her out of there? Jacob was resourceful, he would come up with something, he always had before anytime she had been in trouble. Her eyelids began to fall as she yawned. Breaking into Praetorian Headquarters had been a whole lot harder than she had thought. 

She was on the cot, with her knees drawn up to her chest and her arms wrapped around her legs, deep in thought, when her cell door was opened. She looked up to see another woman being ushered into her cell. She had dirty blond hair and bulked up arms. She squinted at Angela as if checking her over to make sure she was worthy enough to be sharing a cell with.

"You've got company, Missy. Be nice!" the guard said as he closed the door.

She could hear the sound of his boots ringing on the cold concrete floor, as he walked back down the hallway.

"What're you starin' at?" the other woman asked.

"Nothing," Angela said with a sigh, resting her chin on her knees.

"Yeah, you better be starin' at nothin'!"

Where was Jacob when Angela needed him? Though that made her sound weak, like she couldn't even defend herself against another woman.

"Off the cot!"

"What?" Angela asked, startled out of her thoughts.

"You heard me! Get off the cot!!! It's mine now! You've had it all to yourself for too long now. Hurry up! Off the cot!"

Slowly, Angela got up. The woman pushed her away and sprawled out on the thin mattress as Angela went to sit in the farthest corner away from her.

For awhile, neither spoke a word to the other. The woman stayed sprawled out on the cot while Angela curled up in her concrete corner.

Where was Jacob? He should have gotten her out by now. He must have an elaborate plan or something. This was going to be even harder than breaking into Praetorian Headquarters.

* * *

"So, what're you in here for?" the woman asked. 

Angela sighed, "Nothing."

"Nothin'! God, you really are dumb!"

Angela only stared at the wall in front of her.

"Hey!"

They both looked up when they heard a voice from the hall. There was a guard standing there looking at Angela.

"Yeah! You! Come on! Someone's here to see you!"

Jacob!

Angela quickly got to her feet and followed the guard. She was led down the hall to another room, where she met a man in his middle forties with dark hair. Not a young man, seventeen years of age with bleach blonde hair.

"Don't tell me, I know. Jacob sent you and you're supposed to be my lawyer, right?"

"Um……I'm sorry, Ms. Bennett, but I don't know any Jacob," he said.

Had she heard him right?! He didn't know who Jacob was, but even so, he had called her by her real name, not Marx, the name the Praetorians had given her.

"I know, he probably told you not to mention his name to protect himself, I understand. Forget I said anything."

"But, I don't know who he is. Honest. And I'm not here as your lawyer."

What?! Then…..where was Jacob? What had happened to him? Why wasn't he trying to get her out of here? Had the police gotten him too? Or had something else happened to him?

"My name is Walter Cizelski. I'm here on part of the CIC."

"CIC?"

"Center For Intrusion Control"

"Oh. What charges am I being brought up on? I have a right to know, you know."

"You're not being brought up on any charges….well, that is, if you accept my offer."

"What offer?"

Here's where Jacob comes in. He knows about him. This Walter guy wants me to give up Jacob, I just know it!

"I'm looking for agents to populate the CIC."

"What? What did you just say?"

"I want you to go to Quantico , get some FBI training, and then work for me in the CIC."

"What? What exactly is the CIC anyway? And why? Why would you want me? I'm in jail, aren't I?"

"We police the internet. I'm sure you know how much crime happens online, and no one's taken the initiative to police it yet. I want to do that. I know how good you are with computers. And I know you're innocent. So, if you take my offer, I'll get you out of jail. Mariano and his friends already walked earlier today."

"They did?"

"Yes."

"Where's Jacob?"

"I don't know. I told you that already."

"Jacob Resh? He was with me in all this, he helped me out. Are you sure the cops didn't get him too. Or did something else happen to him? He was there at the travel agency where I was arrested. He was breaking into the their computer system. He's got to be somewhere!"

"I have no clue who you're talking about. No clue at all. Now, what about the offer? If you don't take it, you'll have to go to court and you'll probably end up with a life sentence in jail. If you take the offer, you leave jail right now, with nothing on your record. And you'll have a job."

"I'll take it."

Maybe this way she could find Jacob. She knew he was out there somewhere. He was probably just hiding out somewhere until he felt safe enough to come out. But it was ok. Wherever he was, she was sure he was ok. He had to be.

"OK, well, I need to go talk to a few people about this, get it finalized. I'll see you later."

A guard came in and walked Angela back to her cell after Walter left. When she was ushered into the cell, her cellmate didn't even look up at her. She was lying on the cot, her hands behind her head, and her eyes closed. Angela sat in the corner.

She couldn't seem to get him off her mind. She knew there had to be a logical reason why Jacob hadn't contacted her. He could take care of himself. She knew this, but she still couldn't seem to get him off her mind. She couldn't seem to stop worrying about him. He was fine though, she know he was. He had to be. But then where was he? Maybe if she took this job she was just offered she'd be able to find him. Right, like he'd ever think to look for her there. He'd never find her in an FBI office!

"Hey!"

Angela looked up to see her cellmate looking at her.

"So, was he the one that's been on your mind this whole time?"

"What? Who?"

"The guy that was just here to see you?"

"How do you know it was even a guy?"

"Cause, I just know these things. So? Was he?"

"No, someone else."

"Lawyer?"

"Um, yeah."

She didn't need to know about the job. She wouldn't know the difference. Whatever. Hey, how did she even know she had a guy on her mind? Well, they were not like that anyway. But she still couldn't get him out of her brain.

"So, then it must be your husband on your mind then?"

"I'm not married."

"Ah sure you are. A guy that's on your mind twenty-four/seven. You're married. Whether by a priest or not, you're married if you think about him that much. I certainly hope he thinks about you just as much, otherwise it's a one sided marriage."

"I told you, we're not married."

"Yeah right. That's just what you WANT to think."

Angela turned her head away as a single tear slowly made its way down her cheek.

He had to be out there somewhere. He just had to be safe and OK.

"Hey! I was talking to you!"

Turning back, Angela quickly wiped the tear away.

"Were you crying?"

"No."

* * *

Two hours later, another guard came back for Angela. Quietly, without a word to the other woman, she walked out of the cell and down the hall with the guard. She was lead into a beige room with only a chair and a table inside. On the table were her clothes and a yellow envelope containing her personal things. She took off the orange jump suit and put on her old clothes and took her watch and wallet out of the envelope. She was then lead out to Walter who was waiting for her. 

"Glad to be out of there?" he asked.

"Yeah, I am."

She gave a slight smile as they walked outside to his waiting rental car.

If Jacob didn't go to her, she had to go to him, wherever that was. She couldn't leave him out there alone.

"Where are we going? You know I have no place to live, right?"

"We're basing our operations out of Washington State. Your apartment is still there, still in your name. Past rent and all utilities have been paid by the government. We've got a plane to catch in two hours."

Angela stared at him in awe. "You would do that for me?" she asked.

"The government did. Not me, personally. Besides, I know how good you are. You're exactly what we need."

* * *

Stepping out of Walter's actual government issue grey Ford Angela felt odd to be back home. It had been almost a whole year since she'd seen her old apartment. She wasn't sure if she was elated at everything being over, or afraid of finding some long dead Praetorian inside. Looking from the apartment building to the street her eyes widened to see her old, rusted out, blue Jetta sitting at the curb. 

"That's my car..."

"And these, I do believe, are your keys," Walter said, handing her a set of keys. "Here's my business card, call me in the morning and we'll discuss what's what, then, ok?"

"Yeah sure. Hey, really, thanks for everything. I really appreciate it."

"No problem. Just don't forget to call me. Remember I hold the keys to your future. If you don't call I can have cops on your doorstep faster than you can blink."

"Don't worry, I won't forget."

Entering the long abandoned apartment, she found the place to be in the same mess it had been in when she'd last seen it, running away from Sean Trewlawney, wherever he was now. She walked through the kitchen, living room, bathroom, and bedroom, and found that nothing seemed to be missing though a lot was still broken and her plants were dead.

Pulling her empty wallet out of her pocket, she sat down on the couch in the living room. She looked around her, at all of her things, thrown every which way, by the man who had chased her for over a year and had tried to kill her on a number of occasions. Remembering just how easily Sean had gotten to her, she didn't feel very safe there anymore. She opened her wallet to see how much money she had for a hotel room, and then remembered she had no money left to her name. But, just before she closed her wallet, she discovered that it wasn't as empty as she had thought. In shock, she pulled out a photograph.

"Jacob!" she exclaimed out loud, covering her mouth with her hand. "Oh my God! I never put this in here…" she whispered to herself. "How did this get here?"

It was a photo of Jacob, she hadn't even known she'd had. She recognized the picture as his senior high school photo. He was wearing the traditional tux complete with his bleached hair. Handsome? Oh yes! And cute too! Holding the picture close, she suddenly remembered something, got up and went into her bedroom. Under the bed she found her old lock box, miraculously untouched. She unlocked it, and to her relief, found one hundred dollars in cash inside.

Taking the money, her wallet, keys, and Jacob's picture, she set them all down on the coffee table. In the closet she rummaged around through everything that had been thrown around and misplaced. Finally, she came up with a picture frame as empty as her wallet. She put Jacob's picture in it and put it in a duffle bag with the rest of the stuff she had gathered up as well as some clothes, tooth brush, and a few other essential items lying around the house.

Throwing the bag over her shoulder, she left the apartment and drove to the nearest motel. After booking a room for the night, she took out Jacob's picture and set it on the night stand. Everything else she left in the bag. Ever since the Praetorians had started chasing her, she'd always been prepared to run at a moment's notice. Forgetting to turn the lights out, she got into bed, and lay there, staring at Jacob's picture, unable to fall asleep.

For so long, she'd been staying in hotel rooms, alone, and with Jacob. They seemed almost like home now and she wasn't sure she could ever get used to staying in the same place for too long, afraid of who might find her even though Jacob could be one of those people.

She knew he could take care of himself. He'd proved it on a number of occasions. So why was she so worried about him? Why did she feel this way? No easy answer came to her that night.


	2. Part 2

**The Net: Still Running: Chapter 2**

In the morning, Angela pulled out Walter's business card, and called his number from the hotel room. He gave her directions to a music store and told her to meet him there in half an hour. Angela quickly changed into some fresh clothes and paid for the room. She then threw her bag into her car and went to the nearest Dunkin' Donuts, buying one old fashioned donut and a small coffee, black, which was all she could afford.

She finished the donut and half of her coffee on her way to meet her new boss, pulling up to the music store at the same time he was getting out of his own car.

"Nice timing!" he said when he saw her.

"Thanks. So, what are we doing here at a music store? I thought we were FBI."

"Well, almost FBI for you. You still have to go through eight weeks worth of training." Walter opened the door and they went inside. Upon entering the store, Angela noticed that every classical CD that ever existed lined the walls. No other music could be seen, no pop, country, rock, or rap. "OK, well, this is our office."

"What? A music store? Are you kidding?"

"Nope. The store is just the front. Back here," Walter lead her to another room through a curtain. "This is the official office."

Several desks lined the back wall, each with a computer on it. But the computers had not been put together yet. Cords lay everywhere, monitors lay on shelves, separate from everything else, along with several printers. Boxes littered the floor along with bubble wrap and lots of plastic.

"I'm sorry," Walter apologized. "I know nothing about putting these things together. I tried. Honest. It just wasn't working out."

Angela sighed, a slight smile on her face. "Well, be glad you hired me then."

She grabbed a monitor from the shelf and set it down on a desk. Looking around the room she grabbed several cords and hooked them into the computer, linking the monitor to it, and plugging it in.

"Software?" she asked.

Walter handed her a bunch of CD-ROMs, and she inserted the first one into the computer after turning it on and waiting for it to boot up. While the programs installed, she grabbed more monitors, printers, cords, set them together on desks, and continued to hook things together. Walter could only stand there and watch her.

* * *

"OK, Walter, test run of this computer," Angela said, sitting in front of one they'd set up to be a locator, able to find the last place someone had been.

"Alright, let's see what it can do."

Angela typed in the nine digit number she knew to be Jacob's Social Security Number and they both waited to see what would come up. Angela clasped her hands in front of her, in the hopes that the computer would tell her where Jacob was.

"I'm sorry, but this Social Security Number does not exist," the computer told her.

"What?! But……but…..That's impossible!!" she checked to make sure she had typed in the correct number. She had. "But that can't be! I swear that's his number! It's got to be!"

She retyped the same number five times, and each time it came up as being non-existent. Finally, exasperated, she put in her own number. It dutifully came up with Seattle, Washington. She put Jacob's number back in. Once again, it didn't exist.

"I'm sorry Angela, but I don't think…." Walter started.

"No! This can't be happening!" Angela sprang out of her chair. "I'm going home. I'll see you tomorrow at the airport."

Walter didn't even have a chance to get a single word in before she was gone.

* * *

The next day Angela drove her old car to the airport where she met her new boss. Her eyes were slightly red rimmed but she didn't say anything to Walter. Carrying her one duffle bag, she followed him to the lounge area. Walter read the newspaper, while Angela read a novel by Dean Koontz. Though as she read, she kept looking up, distracted by something on her mind. She'd take her eyes off the book, and end up staring into space, thinking. Walter paid no attention to this at all, absorbed in the news as he was. Half an hour later, after Angela had gone back to her book several times, only to be interrupted by her thoughts each time, she was startled by the call to board the plane.

During the flight her thoughts ruled her. She found that she couldn't read or do anything else at all. Instead, she stared out the window and remembered the past. The past with Jacob. When she had first seen him, when Sorcerer had first revealed himself as Jacob Resh, he'd been too young, in her mind, to be doing what he was doing. She hadn't liked it at all. She'd been too shocked. Angela remembered, with some pain, the telling off she'd given him, telling him they weren't together and she hadn't meant the boyfriend/girlfriend picture. Well, it turned out that Jacob was right that night when he said they needed each other. He was right. And right now, she needed to find him, wherever he was. If anyone had told her back then, that someday he'd disappear, and she'd be worried about him, searching frantically for him anywhere and anyway she could, she never would have believed them for an instant. But it was true.

The plane began to land as one of the flight attendants stood up to issue instructions. Angela came out of her dreams of the past and stood up with Walter who was putting his newspaper away. Entering the terminal Angela saw someone run past out of the corner of her eye. She turned, to see a bleached head disappearing through the crowd.

"Jacob!" she shouted, and tore off after him. She ran through the crowd of people, eager to see him again. She was excited, and her excitement, kept her from noticing everyone else around her as she chased him down. "Jacob! Where are you?!" she called over the people in the airport. She continued to run, though she couldn't see him anymore. His blond head had disappeared in the crowd. "Come back! Jacob! Jacob! It's me! Please come back! Please!"  
But it was no use. He was gone. There were too many people around, too much of a crowd, and they all stared at her as if she was an escapee from the Loony Bin. Finally noticing the crowd around her, Angela quickly walked back to Walter, trying hard to ignore them now.

"Um…..are you OK? What was that all about?" he asked.

"I swear I saw Jacob, but he was too fast for me. I lost him in the crowd. I don't know why he was running, with the Praetorians gone and all. I don't get it."

Walter looked at her, as if he was wondering about her mental capacity for the job he was giving her.

She saw his facial expression. "I know I saw him Walter. And I know you don't think he really exists, but I know he does. You just have to trust me on this."

"Yeah, OK, whatever. Come on, our ride's waiting for us."

* * *

Arriving at the FBI training grounds, Angela was shown to her room by a man currently in the second level of training.

"Well, here's your room."

"Ah, thanks."

"Hey, if you need anything, let me know. I'll be happy to tell you who to avoid and where things are and, well, anything you want to know."

"Who to avoid?"

"Well, yeah, some people around here can be quite horrible. You know, like bullies in elementary school."

"Oh. Well, thanks for the info."

"You're welcome. Well, I'll let you unpack and stuff. Just remember dinner is served at 6 in the dinning hall, and there's a meeting for all newcomers at 5 outside on the green and you have to be in uniform. Oh, and one more thing….don't forget my name is Tim Esseray, but my friends, well, back home, they called me Skate."

"Skate?"

"Yeah, it's a nickname, cause I used to like to skate board. I was never without my board."

"Sounds like someone else I know."

"Really?"

"Yup."

"Well, maybe I'll see you around?"

"Maybe."

After Skate had left, Angela unpacked her bag. The small framed picture of Jacob went on the small night stand. Her few clothes went into the closet. She'd be wearing the uniform she'd been given most of the time, so bringing her whole wardrobe hadn't been necessary. She pulled out a brand new journal, and put it in the drawer under Jacob's picture. What little cash she had on her went into the drawer as well. She then stashed her bag in the closet after emptying it and changed into her uniform of khaki pants and a grey t-shirt which read "FBI Trainee" in dark blue on the front and back.

* * *

"This training you are all about to undergo, is very rigorous," the director said. She wore the same khaki pants everyone else had on and a t-shirt which read "Trainee Director". Her hair was cut short. "I suggest, if any of you don't think you can go through with this, and graduate from Quantico, that you leave right now, rather than waste your time and ours by being here."

No one left the room.

"Good. That's what I like to see. There are twenty of you here. You will be split up into groups of five and in those groups you will be given a schedule of classes. Please, listen for your name and move to wherever you are told to move."

The director listed off the names and each new trainee joined the group they were assigned. She then handed each person a list of their classes, including times and places.

"When it comes to your weapons courses, you will be issued a weapon at the beginning of each class and you must return it at the end of the class. No one may have or keep any weapon of any kind in their rooms, or they will be taken away. You will have to sign a form at your first class….."

The introduction went on and on. Angela tuned out some of it, thinking that this training could help in her search for Jacob. After the director stopped talking, everyone went to dinner.

* * *

"Angela! Over here!" Angela looked up to see Skate motioning her over to his table. Her eyes went from Skate at one end of the room to Walter at the other having his dinner with a few higher ups. She went to join Skate.

"Hey, what's up?" she asked when she sat down.

"Not much. How was the intro?"

"Oh it was truly lovely."

"Thought so. Yeah, I hate those things. So, what classes are you taking?" She showed him the paper. "Oh! We're in the same class!"

"What? How is that possible?"

Skate sighed. "When I was learning how to shoot...I sucked basically and failed that class. But I passed all my others. So, they let me advance to the next level, with the understanding that I'd retake that one class."

"Oh."

"Yeah. Well, it looks like you got some good teachers. Just be nice and don't act like you know everything. They really hate that."

"Gottcha."

"Do you mind if I ask you something personal?"

"What?"

"You seem to have something really big on your mind."

Knowing that the Praetorians were gone, and she could trust people again, she decided it was OK to tell this guy about Jacob's disappearance.

"My best friend disappeared," Angela said, looking back to her plate and quickly shoveling corn into her mouth, almost afraid of what he'd say.

"Disappeared?! Wow. I'm sorry."

"I'm sure he'll turn up somewhere. And hopefully all this FBI training will help with the search too."

"Yeah! That's an idea, in your line of work, you're bound to find him!" Skate said, excited at the thought.

"You have no idea how much I hope you're right."

"Oh," Skate looked up, and then over at Angela with a sense of urgency to his voice.

"What?"

"Are you done eating?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Drakes is on his way over here. Which means we'd best be on the move so he doesn't see us."

"What do you mean? Who?"

Skate nodded towards a tall muscular man with black hair ambling over to their table. There was a group of guys hanging around him. He appeared to be laughing at something funny, one of them had said. Angela saw them look right at Skate and burst into fresh peals of laughter.

"Come on, let's go!"

Skate left the table, taking his tray with him. Angela followed close behind.

"What are you running from? Huh, Skeeter Boy? That a bullet right behind you on your tail?" They all laughed again.

Putting their trays on the automated tray return belt, Skate showed Angela out of the dinning room and outside where it was much quieter. At the far end of a short unused field, well away from the hubbub of everything else, sat a lone tree. They sat down leaning their backs against it for comfort.

"This is a really nice place, Skate. Nice, and quiet."

"And peaceful, I know. I usually come here to escape it all, to relax, to be alone. No one else comes out here but me that I know of. Well, and now you. But that's OK. I'll share my secret with you and only you. Though I think I'm gonna have to make you pinky swear not to tell anyone. OK?"

"Sure."

They stuck out their pinky fingers and she swore she wouldn't tell anyone.

"So who is Drakes?" Angela asked.

"He's just a stupid bully. He thinks he's better than anyone else in the whole world, that's all. He likes to pick on people, you know. Can I ask something though? About your friend Jacob?"

"What about him?" Angela was on her guard, wondering what this guy would possibly want to know about her best friend.

"This whole disappearance thing is kinda weird. I mean, you made it sound like he just one day up and left without a note or anything, and that doesn't make sense. I mean, there must have been circumstances or something to make him runaway or whatever, right?"

Angela sighed. She'd neglected to tell him about the Praetorians for several reasons. First of all, they were already gone, and out of her life. The Praetorians had ceased to exist. And since they weren't around anymore, Jacob's disappearance couldn't possibly have had anything to do with them. And, all that she'd been through because of them, wasn't something she wanted to tell the whole world about. She'd broken into more stores and museums and a travel agency, she'd been with others, Mariano and his men specifically, while they shot and killed Praetorians so that she could get her identity back.

She knew that it was time to start trusting people again almost as much as she'd trusted Jacob. Almost as much. As always, she would trust Jacob with her life. But trusting others, people she didn't know, that much? Telling Skate about Jacob's disappearance at all in the first place, had placed her on the first rung of the ladder of trust. Telling him now, about the Praetorians, or at least part of the story, would land her on the second rung. Looking up, she pictured the ladder in her head, and knew that it was a very tall ladder with a ton of rungs. But she also knew how important this was. How Jacob would be proud of her if he could have been there. Gripping the ladder in her mind, she lifted her right foot off the first rung and started to place it on the second…..

"Have you ever heard of a group of people called the Praetorians?" she began.

"Yeah, I know, it's hard to believe" Skate was still staring at her when she was done telling her story. "But it's true! Those things really happened to me and….and….Jacob and I….well…I guess you could say we got really close. I just wish I could find him. I know, that's all I think about, but I can't help it."

Blinking, he snapped out of his stare, "Hey, it's ok. I know you'll find him somewhere and I'm sure he'll be just fine. And as for the Pratori-whosiwhatsits, I just don't know what to say at all!"

"You mean the Praetorians," there was a small smile on her lips as she spoke. "Yeah, they are crazy. Thank God they're gone."

There was a long silence filled with the sounds of the night as Angela enjoyed the field in her view, glad to be out of the city for awhile, and have the time to relax.

* * *

After she'd gotten undressed and into bed, Angela pulled out her journal and pen and began to write:

Dear Jacob,

You're not here, I don't know where you are, but I'm determined to find you, no matter how long it takes, no matter where you are. I'm in FBI training camp right now, and wish you were here to talk to. But you're not, so I figure I'll write everything down and when I do find you, you can read this.

Yes, I got my identity back. It worked. Thanks to you. There was plenty of bloodshed, lots of people died, though I don't think any of Mariano's men did. After he and I were arrested I didn't get the chance to talk to him. I've got a new job now, working for the FBI, can you believe it?! So that's why I'm at Quantico, going through FBI training. I met another guy here. His nickname's Skate. He reminds me a lot of you, though he's a little older than you. You'll be proud of me, I told him the truth. He knows about the Praetorians. About you. My boss doesn't believe you're real. Thinks I'm insane. I know it.

Jacob, I'm on my own now, no longer running for my life, starting to trust people again, on my way to a great job with the FBI and all, but something's missing. You. I miss you Jacob. I wish I could know what happened, where you are. Right now, all I can do is pray that you're still alive and safe. I pray that I will find you soon. That you'll come back to me. When my boss, Walter, and I hooked up the new computers in our office, I checked for you, did searches. But they came up empty. That you didn't exist. What's going on? Where are you?

Jacob, I miss you. -Angel


	3. Part 3

**The Net: Still Running: Chapter 3**

Dear Jacob,

I've been here two days, at Quantico that is. Skate and I are in the same shooting class together. It was interesting. Learning how to shoot, didn't think I'd ever have to do that. It was really boring too. Two hours of learning how to handle a gun and clean the thing. I guess next class we actually get to shoot targets or something, finally. As Skate said, this part's the easy part. It's the shooting that's hard. We'll see, I guess. All my other classes went ok too. Not much to talk about there, just learning the ways of the FBI: how to handle certain cases, and how to arrest someone, the many different laws and stuff like that. It's too bad I didn't go through all this before I met Trelawney. I could have had him cooking in jail a long time ago!

Trust is a hard thing. Especially after the Praetorians. But you know that already. It's going to take me a long time to earn that back. I think I could get to trust Skate more than I currently do. He's ok. One of the better guys here, that's for sure. Drakes is a bully, untrustable to the core. But Skate's ok. He's really the only person I talk to here besides Walter. Walter, well, he says he knew I was innocent from the start. Figures he would have to since he hired me and got me into training. But I still would never be able to tell him everything. I couldn't. He doesn't believe me anyway. About you. But you, you're at the top of my list. I know I could trust you with my life. Lord knows I've had to many times. I can tell you everything.

You know, I'm sorry. I have to apologize about that first night when you showed up. You turned out to be the best guy in my life. And I'm going to renew my search for you as soon as I get out of Quantico and back to the real world. I miss you Jacob.

-Angel

**

* * *

****BANG!**

The shooting instructor sighed, "missed again Tim."

Skate looked down at his gun and then up at the woods beyond his target where his bullet had gone, sighing a heavy sigh. Angela looked over at him from her own stance in front of the next target. After the instructor had moved onto another class member she said: "Hey, Skate, don't worry. I know you can do it. Just calm down and take it easy. Concentrate on that target."

Skate took a deep breath, "OK."

Slowly he leveled his weapon at the target and pulled the trigger. **BANG! **The bullet flew from the gun and just barely clipped the edge of the target. Once again his face fell.

"Hey, that's better than before!" Angela said. "At least it didn't go off into the woods that time."

"Yeah, I guess."

"Try it again and see what happens," she suggested.

Once again he leveled his gun and pulled the trigger. **BANG! **The bullet flew from the gun and landed in a tree several yards above the target. They both sighed and shook their heads. The instructor came back around and asked to see Angela demonstrate her own shooting abilities. She turned to her target, raised her gun, aimed it, and fired a bullet right to the center of the target. Skate looked away and said nothing.

* * *

Dear Jacob,  
I've been here a week and already I can shoot perfectly. Skate still can't shoot, and this is the second time he's taken this class too. I tried to help, but it didn't do any good. I don't know. Maybe he just wasn't meant to fire a gun. Who knows. He'll get it someday. I know he will. I just don't know when. Though I wish there was something I could do.

Training has gotten harder too. They're working us to death now. They've got us doing pushups and all this exercising. It's so exhausting! And I don't see the point for me, cause when I get out of here I'm just gonna end up sitting behind a desk at a computer not chasing bad guys down the street. Well, I told that to Walter and he said the job would be a mix of exercise and desk sitting. Not sure if that's good or bad.

I hardly have any free time at all now, but Skate and I somehow find a little time just after dinner to hang out by the tree every night. We've just been sitting there, talking about random things, whatever comes to mind. I've been trying to keep the conversation off you cause I know he doesn't want to hear about you anymore. And there's also nothing I can do about finding you while I'm here so the conversation would be the same old stuff over and over again. I try. I bring you up sometimes and then neither of us says anything until I change the subject. I'm trying not to think about you at all, since there is nothing I can do, but that's harder than I thought. No matter what I'm doing, whether it be shooting, doing the dishes, or sitting with Skate, I end up imagining or wishing that you were there.

Something's gotta be wrong with my brain, Jacob. Or maybe it's just me. But you're not here to talk to, so I guess I won't find out for awhile. I think I'll head to bed. It's late and I'm tired. Besides, perhaps some sleep might help to clear my head. Miss you. -Angel

* * *

"Hey, Ang, you really do look wiped," Skate said as they sat down beneath their tree in the deserted field. "How were your classes today?"

"Oh they were torture alright. And yeah, I am wiped." He placed his hands on her shoulders and began to massage them. "Mmmmm, thanks. I guess classes weren't really that bad. No worse than usual. It's just all that exercise and everything, you know."

"Course."

"Skate, what would you do if something happened to me?" Angela asked totally out of the blue.

"What?!What on earth do you mean?"

His hands stopped massaging her shoulders in shock as she turned to face him.

She was serious, "what would you do if I got shot and the guy who did it was running away?"

"Well, I'd…I don't know. I'd run to you and make sure you were OK."

"No. I mean, you know that the guy's gonna get away, and he'll never be found and never pay the price in justice for shooting me."

"Well, I'd guess I'd go after him, but shouldn't that be Jacob's job?"

"Jacob's with me, so you know I should be OK, though I could be in a coma for a few weeks or something drastic. So, how would you react? How would you feel?"

"Well, I'd be really mad! I'd wanna pop the guy, if I could!"

"And you have a gun, and you're the only person who can catch this guy. It's up to you, and only you. You have the chance to shoot him…."

"Ang, what's this getting at? Why are you asking me all this?"

"Next time you face a target at practice, imagine me lying on the ground with a bullet hole in me. Jacob is with me, but there's still a chance I might not make it. The target is the guy who shot me and at the center of the target is his heart. You have the chance to bring him to justice, but only by shooting him in the heart, and only you can do this. If you fail, he gets away and I die."

"The target?"

"Yes, the target."

* * *

Skate turned from his target to look at Angela. A look of fear swept over his face before it was replaced with a look of rage. Turning back to his own target, he gritted his teeth and raised his gun, pulling the trigger.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

When he finally lowered the weapon, he'd emptied his whole clip into the center of the target, the heart of Angela's killer. He looked back at her, his eyes wide open. There was a smile on her face.

"I did what you told me," he said quietly. "And it worked!"

"What's going on here?" The instructor came over to inspect Skate's work. "Nice Job Tim! Can you do that again?"

"I think so," he said.

The instructor called back over his shoulder. "Yo! John! Get me another target and a new clip!"

"Yes Sir!"

A few minutes later, a new target had been set up and a new clip was inserted into Skate's gun. Without looking at Angela this time, Skate aimed his weapon and fired. Every bullet he shot, landed at the center of the target.

"Well now, it looks like you finally got it! Nice work!" He patted Skate on the back before checking everyone else's targets.

"Did you hear that?!" he said excitedly. "I did it! I finally did it!"

* * *

"Thanks Angela. You know I couldn't have done that without your help," Skate said later that night as the sun set slowly in the distance.

"Hey, no problem. Glad I could help."

She sighed.

"What's wrong?"

"Oh nothing. I was just expecting an 'Angel' after that thanks, that's all."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, Jacob always called me 'Angel' and you just remind me so much of him though you are a few years older than him."

"Oh."

"Look, I'm gonna head back to my room. I've got some stuff I want to get done before bed so I'll see you tomorrow," Angela said, standing up.

"Um, yeah, ok, I guess." Skate watched her walk away before slowly getting to his feet.

Dear Jacob,

Well, Skate finally learned how to shoot. I had to tell him to pretend I had been shot and he was the only one who could catch the shooter, and the only way to catch him was to shoot him in the heart, obviously killing him. It worked. Though he did mention that catching the guy should be your job and not his. I was surprised he said that. And, yeah, if I ever did get shot, I would want it to be you who catches the guy. But I told Skate that you were with me, making sure I was ok, even though I might not make it. And I think I'd want that even more. If I really was going to die, I'd definitely want you there by my side.

_But it's not going to happen. I'm not going to die. I have to find you first! I just don't understand why you're not trying to find me. It used to be that you could find me anywhere. And now that the Praetorians are gone, you can't find me at all. I just don't get it. Well, when I do find you, I'm sure you'll have a good explanation for all of this. You'd better, Jacob! And, you know I still miss you. –Angel_

_

* * *

"Hey, I haven't seen you to talk to in a long time." Walter exclaimed one afternoon as he sat down at Angela's table during lunch. Skate was still in line getting his food._

"Hey to you too."

"So, how's the training going?  
"Not too bad actually. After a while it turned out to be a whole lot easier than you said it would be."

"Well, I guess that's a good thing. Law enforcement will come easy to you then. When this training session is over, I just have to pick out another agent to work with us because the two of us can't do it alone."

"I know just who you need."

"You do?"

"Yes. Walter, meet Skate," she said just as Skate set his tray down beside hers. "Skate, this is my boss, Walter."

"Hi," Skate stuck out his hand. "Actually, the name's Tim Esseray. Skate's just a nickname," he finished as they shook hands.

"Nice to meet you."

_

* * *

Dear Jacob,_

Well, I finally got into the second level. The levels, I've discovered, don't really mean anything. Basically, it just means that you move on to different classes. Yeah, nothing interesting there. In other news, Walter and Skate seem to be getting along quite well. Since I've introduced them, Walter has been sitting with us at lunch everyday and we end up talking about CIC and computers and stuff like that. The chances are looking good that Walter just might hire Skate to work for him too. Which would be good cause right now Skate doesn't have a job lined up. Skate knows a whole lot more about being an FBI agent and computers than I realized. Well, it's not like we talk about that stuff anyway when we're together. Sometimes we do, be generally we try to keep the conversation off work. Ha! That can be hard sometimes, let me tell you, since that's what we're here for, training for the work force. I don't want to go into details. It's late and I'm tired. One last thing though: Jacob, I'm gonna find you, no matter what it takes! I'm coming! And I miss you, as always. Life could never be the same without you. –Angel

* * *

"And the end is finally here," Angela commented out loud to no one in particular.

She stepped off the mini stage with her brand new FBI badge in hand to meet Walter and her new best friend, Skate, who'd graduated the week before. After congratulating her, Walter went off to talk to some of the higher ups while Skate and Angela went out for a last walk around the premises. Angela had already packed her things earlier that day and was ready to leave.

"So, now that we're both graduated we're on our way up to Seattle, is that it?" Skate asked as they neared their favorite hang out spot under the lone tree.

"Yup, that's it."

"I hope it's nice! I've never been there before." He stopped under the tree, and sat down. "Ang, there's something I want to tell you."

"Ok," she said, sitting down next to him.

"You know, I don't have a single penny to my name right now. I'm not gonna have a place to live there. I can't even afford a motel for the night. It's….well, see, my parents both died just before I came here, in a really bad car accident. They were so deep in debt that the state got everything they owned. I came in here with only two bags of my things. The rest is history. Well, it's not like there was much more that I really wanted, cause there wasn't. I didn't have the best childhood ever. And I have no living relatives that I know of. So, it's just me, being thrown out into the wind now. I really don't have a place to go, a place to live. I guess that's why it's so easy for me to pick up and move all the way to Seattle. I've got nothing else do, but that." Skate stared out into the sun.

"Hey, don't you worry. I've got a pull out couch in my apartment you can have. It's not a big place, but I don't mind sharing."

"Really? You'd let me stay with you?"

"Of course! What are friends for after all?"

"Thanks Ang, I really appreciate it! And I'll only stay till I can get my own place. Or unless you find Jacob first…."

"Well, he wouldn't mind, really. Stay as long as you like."

"Thanks."

"And to answer your earlier question: yeah, it is nice."

Skate laughed, "That's good to hear!"

"You know, I just can't believe that it's over already. It seems like only yesterday I was meeting you for the first time. These weeks just flew right by! I just don't know where the time went at all! I still feel like the Praetorians should be chasing me too, but they're not. Now though, it's our turn to get the bad guys for all the wrongs they're doing to innocent people. We're now ready to take back the law!"

"You bet we are!"

A silence fell over them as they both stared wistfully at the tree one last time. "hmmmm, short walk, but we really should be getting back so Walter doesn't wonder what happened to us," Skate commented.

"Yeah, besides, I want to go home!"

* * *

Dear Jacob,

So the graduation ceremony was small. Skate graduated the week before me, so I sort of knew what to expect. They made a big deal about Skate and me. Seeing as we're going into the brand new department of the FBI known as CIC. Center for Intrusion Control. Don't know if I mentioned that before. Policing the internet. It should be interesting. But back to graduation, so they graduated both of us first before everyone else at both ceremonies. The cool thing was that instead of getting a diploma I got my first FBI badge. Kinda like how doctor's get their first lab coats at their graduation rather than wearing robes. Jacob, you have no idea how much I wish you had been there. It would have meant a lot to me. But you weren't. I just have to accept that. I guess.

In other news, Skate moved into my apartment with me when we got to Seattle earlier tonight. He had no other place to go, of course I said he could use my couch. I guess we'll be saving on gas too, driving together to work until he gets his own place.

Jacob, I feel kind of empty inside. I'm living with a good friend, I've got a job, a well paying good job, but I still feel empty. These things just don't seem to be filling the void like they should be. I don't understand. The Praetorians are gone. Trelawney's not chasing me any more. I should feel relieved, happy, should be glad to get back to a normal life. What's wrong Jacob?

Wish I knew where you were right now. Miss you. -Angel


	4. Part 4

**The Net: Still Running: Chapter 4**

Angela took Skate to the music store and showed him into the back room, full of computers.

"Wow! I can already tell this will be a fun job."

"Glad to hear it." Walter said, looking up from a screen in front of him covered in a coded message he was trying to decode.

"What's that?" Angela looked over his shoulder.

"Someone put a virus in one of the Green Savings Bank's major computers and it keeps bringing up this code, but I can't figure out what it's supposed to mean."

"It's not supposed to mean anything Walter," Angela said. "Trace the code."

"What do you mean?"

"They're not professionals, whoever did this. Trace the code and you can figure out where the virus came from."

"Oh, right."

They watched, as on the screen, a line began to bounce around between images of computers. The screen zoomed out for a moment, then zoomed back in and the line finally stopped. Walter pulled up the particulars of the computer.

* * *

A few days later Angela was curled up on her bed writing in her journal when Skate came into the room. He was holding a carton of cookie dough ice cream in one hand and a spoon in the other.

"Hey, you want some?" he offered.

"Oh, no thanks."

"OK, more for me then!" He sat down on the edge of the bed. "Whatcha writin'?"

"Oh, nothing really. Just a few thoughts going through my head right now."

"Oh, OK."

Skate continued to sit there and eat his ice cream while she wrote and when he was done he lay on his back and stared at the ceiling.

Dear Jacob,

Things are going OK. We finished our first case already. Someone had put a virus in the computers at one of the local banks and we found out that it was just some high school kids with too much time on their hands who kinda knew what they were doing. They weren't even from around here either. They were actually from Ohio. So, I got to see some of the country when we flew out there to arrest them. It was interesting. I was actually happy to arrest them. Hopefully now they'll think twice before doing that again. I guess they'd been trying to get some money from the bank and failed. Plus they forgot to cover their tracks. Oh well. It's the people like that, that we can catch easily.

Even with all that to be happy about, and yes, I am happy about solving the case, but I'm still not totally happy. I mean, the Praetorians are gone. So where are you Jacob? You walk into my life like it's no big deal, and then walk out again, just like that? Like it doesn't matter. Like, I don't need you. As if I only needed you to help with the Praetorians and wouldn't care if I saw you ever again after they were all dealt with. Jacob, you can't do that to me. You just can't. I need you. You were the one constant in my life for so long, I don't think I could live without that now. Jacob, please come back. Please. I miss you. -Angel

Angela closed the journal and put it in her night stand drawer. She looked at Skate, who'd finished his ice cream and had closed his eyes.

"You're not planning on staying there all night are you?"

He sat up.

"Not unless you want me to."

"I wish." Skate suddenly had a faraway look in his eyes. "What?"

"Nothing. I forget. There's someone else in your life."

He stood up and walked out of the room back to the kitchen.

"What? But…no…it's not like that…." she tried to get out, but he was already gone and no longer listening to her.

The next morning Skate came into the kitchen staring at the floor.

"Um, Angela, I'm…I'm sorry…about…what I said last night. I really didn't mean to say that."

Angela sighed and handed him a plate of eggs. "It's OK. Forget it happened."

They were silent for the rest of breakfast. Finally he spoke up while they did the dishes together "I'm gonna take my board with me to work today, so you don't have to drive me there."

"Oh. Um, OK, I guess."

He left the apartment fifteen minutes before her and as she drove down the street, she saw him on his skateboard up ahead. He had a big easy, care free smile on his face as he skated with ease down the sometimes bumpy sidewalk. She looked back at the road for a second and when her eyes met up with Skate once again she was surprised to see a head of hair that had been bleached blond. She did a double take. For a second he really had looked like Jacob. She shook her head.

"God, my mind is playing tricks on me!" She said to herself.

The truth was, he really did look like Jacob. After all, Jacob had a skateboard too. What would happen if she never did find Jacob? What if he was gone to her forever? Would Skate take his place? What place did Jacob hold anyway? They'd just been close friends, as far as she knew. But now that he was gone, she wasn't so sure anymore. Just thinking about him tugged at her heart strings and she felt her eyes well up with tears before getting control of herself and holding them back. When she looked back to the sidewalk Skate was gone. She'd passed him without even realizing it. Jacob, however, remained within her sights. She sighed, realizing that until she actually found him, Jacob would always be in her mind. She found herself parking in front of the music store before she'd even realized it.

"Hey, where's Tim?" Walter asked when she came in alone.

"Huh? Oh, he decided to board to work this morning."

"What? Board? What's that? What do you mean?"

"Skateboard."

"Oh, right."

Minutes later, Skate came in the door with that big smile still plastered all over his face carrying his skateboard under his arm. Angela once again had to do a double take, to make sure he really wasn't Jacob.

* * *

Several months crawled by. The rain poured down as the CIC gang arrested criminal after criminal. At the end of long days at work that often exceeded the normal nine to five hours, Angela would go home with Skate and fall on her bed, not to wake up until her alarm went off early the next morning. She found herself in a stupor most of the time, just going through the motions of each day, not even realizing what she was doing. Skate often had to remind her where she was, what she was doing, and what was going on, before Walter could catch her and fire her.

Angela had begun to think that maybe Jacob hadn't really existed. He had always called her "Angel" but what if he was the angel, Sent down to help her fight the Praetorians, and nothing more? What if it was his job to make sure Angela won, that Sean didn't kill her? What if it was his job to make sure that Skate entered her life when Jacob left it, to help her get through the less stressful parts of life? Or to become more than a friend to her? But she didn't want Skate in that way. She wanted Jacob. And she felt lately that her life amounted to nothing without him. Work wasn't working for her, at all. She was only earning money to keep herself alive. Skate would soon be looking for a place of his own, and then she'd be living alone.

Even Skate stayed away from her sometimes. She knew he wanted to be better friends with her, but he kept his distance, because of Jacob. He didn't want to take Jacob's place in her life when he came back. And with Angela's insistence that Jacob was coming back, there was no room for Skate not to believe her. She was ruining everything she had, her job, and her friends. She knew she couldn't stay where she was forever and hope to find Jacob. It just wouldn't work.

_

* * *

Dear Jacob,_

My life's spiraling out of control. My job's falling apart. Walter, my boss, looks at me like I've got three heads sometimes. Skate avoids me when he can. But I can't control this. I swear I see you sometimes, and I run after you and you're gone. I just want you back. I need you to get me over this. Am I going insane? Something's wrong. But I don't know what. I don't know what to do. I can't concentrate on anything anymore. I don't have a life. I thought I'd be happy, but I'm not. Jacob, I miss you. I need you. -Angel

* * *

It continued to rain, to pour water down from the heavens as Angela shoved a criminal up against a brick wall and threw her handcuffs around his wrists.

"Maybe you'll think twice about creating computer viruses now!" she shouted at him, shoving him harder into the wall. The guy tried to scream that she was hurting him but she wouldn't let him get a word in until Skate ran over to take him from her and put him into a police cruiser.

"Ang, you OK?" he asked.

"Yeah, fine. Just fine."

Angela turned away and stared off into the distance, ignoring the commotion going on around her.

"Come on Angela, we've got paper work back at the office," Walter called from the car.

Just then, in the far distance, Angela saw someone running away. Someone, with bleached hair, about Jacob's height. Soaking wet, she took off after the runner, leaving Walter and Skate to stare after her, wondering what she was doing.

Angela ran and ran, her legs pumping as hard as they could. When she got to the spot where she'd seen Jacob, she looked around in all directions, to find her bearings. Jacob had gone to the left. She ran that way, but soon discovered that he was gone. Yet again. But she continued to run, calling out his name, not knowing what else to do.

"Jacob! Jacob, please! It's me! Come back! I just want to see you again! Make sure you're OK! Jacob! Where are you?!"

She stopped, standing in the pouring rain, without a clue where she was, yearning to find Jacob again. She stood there for several long minutes and jumped when a car pulled up beside her. The passenger side window rolled down.

"Ang, get in, will you? Walter's not happy."

She turned to see Skate at the wheel and got into the car. They went back to pick up Walter, who said nothing all the way back to the office.

"I'm gonna go home, I think," Angela said when they arrived.

"Good idea," Walter said.

Along the way, Angela turned on the radio, as she drove, wondering where her life was headed and what she was going to do without Jacob. She knew her job was quickly going down the tubes. But Jacob was out there. He may have been an angel, but he was out there. She'd seen him earlier that day! She knew it was him. He was a real life angel, and she had to find him. He would have found her any way possible after the incident at the Mattimoe Travel Agency if he could. The fact that he hadn't, just went to prove that something was wrong. Why was he ignoring her? She'd seen him several times, called out to him, but he'd ignored her. Why?

Flipping the radio station, she came to a song that fit her mood perfectly: "Kentucky Rain" by Elvis:

Seven lonely days  
And a dozen towns ago  
I reached out one night  
And you were gone  
Don't know why you'd run,  
What you're running to or from  
All I know is I want to bring you home

So I'm walking in the rain,  
Thumbing for a ride  
On this lonely Kentucky backroad  
I've loved you much too long  
And my love's too strong  
To let you go, never knowing  
What went wrong

Kentucky rain keeps pouring down  
And up ahead's another town  
That I'll go walking thru  
With the rain in my shoes,  
Searchin for you  
In the cold Kentucky rain,  
In the cold Kentucky rain

Showed your photograph  
To some old gray bearded manSitting on a bench  
Outside a gen'ral store  
They said "Yes, she's been here"  
But their memory wasn't clear  
Was it yesterday,  
No, wait the day before

So I fin'ly got a ride  
With a preacher man who asked  
"Where you bound on such a dark afternoon?"  
As we drove on thru the rain  
As he listened I explained  
And he left me with a prayer  
That I'd find you

She listened to the lyrics, and when the song was over and she'd reached her apartment, she knew what she had to do.


	5. part 5

**The Net: Still Running: Chapter 5**

"I figured it out," Walter said as soon as she'd walked in the next door. "Erin Jack's been playing with us. He's been giving us clues to his location, wanting us to play his game. Angela, remember that last message he sent a few days ago? I think I finally cracked it. Listen to this..."

"I quit," Angela said, cutting her boss off in mid-sentence.

"What?" Walter looked up from his computer in surprise.

Skate stood behind her and shrugged his shoulders. "I tried to convince her not to, Walter. But I just couldn't. She's dead set on going."

"Going? Going where? What are you talking about?"

Angela sighed. "I need to find Jacob. Not knowing where he is, is bothering me too much. It's ruining my work. I can't concentrate on anything. It's just best if I go out and search for him."

"But...but...What about the case? Erin Jack's the biggest case out there, if we can catch him..." Walter struggled to understand everything and comprehend that she was leaving.

"I just wanted to come here and tell you myself. I'm sorry, Walter, but this is just something I have to do."

Before she could change her mind, Angela had turned around and left the music store.

* * *

Out on the road Angela drove for many hours, not even sure where she was going, before stopping at an internet café for lunch. She hooked up the new laptop she'd bought a few days before and started up the new program CIC had gotten which she'd borrowed to aid in her search for Jacob. No one had yet had a chance to use the program at work, it was so new.

Tracking Sorcerer down was going to be hard, she knew. He was smart when it came to hiding himself online. She typed in Sorcerer's name and added a few extra codes to locate him, but the program found nothing. However, she wasn't going to give up. Sorcerer was good. But she'd find him. No matter how long it took.

Packing up her computer and finishing her sandwich she got back on the road. The rain continued to pound on her windshield. Driving on the highway, trying to follow the brake lights on the truck ahead of her, through the rain, she thought she saw a young man walking in the opposite direction on the side of the road. But when she looked again, he was gone. She shook her head and continued driving, listening to the swish swish of her windshield wipers as they tried in vain to clear her view of the road in front of her.

* * *

Every chance she got, every new town she came to, she stopped to grab a bite to eat and hook up her laptop to run the program that would eventually find Jacob. And every time, she came up with nothing. Not a single thing. Until one night...

Angela sat at another internet café, eating a sandwich and plugging in the codes to locate Jacob on her small laptop. She watched as the interface blinked and turned red for a second, then black. A white cursor blinked...and blinked...and blinked before words finally filled the screen. Words that she'd been hoping to see for a long time. Beautiful words that would lead her to Jacob:

Query Location: Joe's Internet Café Network

Without reading any further Angela jumped up from her seat, excited to know that she was in Joe's Internet Café! Leaving her computer at station number thirty-three, she quickly darted around the café, checking everyone out. Men eyed her oddly and women looked towards her briefly before returning to their computers. Not a single person in the whole café escaped her gaze, not even Joe, the owner himself who stood behind the main counter.

With a heavy heart Angela returned to the laptop. No one had Jacob's bleach blond hair. No one was his age. No one looked like him. No one acted like him. No one was happy to see her. No one was Jacob Gabriel Resh.

She reread the screen with Sorcerer's location, not skipping any information this time:

Query Location: Joe's Internet Café Network, station #33.

Checking the number of the booth where her computer was hooked up she looked back at her computer quizzically and reran the scan again. It came out with the same information. Yet, she was the one sitting at station number thirty-three. Not Sorcerer. Which meant, what? Perhaps Walter knew she'd taken the program and had disabled it somehow. But no, he couldn't have done that. There was another reason. There had to be. But what was it?

* * *

A young man wearing tattered skater clothes with longish brown hair that hadn't seen scissors in awhile crouched inside the cleaning closet of a rooming house. On his knees he'd balanced a laptop which was plugged into the house's electrical socket to recharge his precious battery. In one hand he held a Yodel, stuffing it into his mouth to fill his empty stomach while the other typed codes and information into the computer.

Someone was tracking him, asking for his location. It wasn't the men who chased him. He knew their tracking programs and this wasn't one of them. Turning the seeker's codes back onto them, he gained a location. An internet café in some nearby town. It meant nothing. Probably just some kid hacker who'd heard about the amazing Sorcerer and wanted to find him. He knew this kid had been seeking him out lately. He'd gotten the message, though his computer was blocked to all incoming searches. No one would find him.

An alert popped up on the screen. One that began with a "P". He read no more, cramming the last of the Yodels into his mouth, unplugging the computer, and running off into the deep dark night yet again.

* * *

Leaving the Internet Café, Angela walked passed the local police station next door when something caught her eye. She backtracked to the police bulletin board posted outside the station and stared at the poster that had caught her eye. It had been printed out on a regular laser jet printer, probably as soon as the cops had received it. The paper had yellowed considerably since the printing and had been soaked by heavy rains many times. She hadn't seen the poster in a long time and it made the bile rise up into her mouth. She struggled to bring it back down as she leveled her gaze at her own mug shot underneath the word "Wanted". The name "Elizabeth Marx" complete with what she assumed to be Sean Trelawney's own phone number were printed under the picture.

Taking a quick look around, and finding no one, she ripped the poster off the bulletin board, leaving its corners attached to the thumb tacks. She stuffed it into her jacket pocket before crossing the street. Entering the smoke shop she asked for a book of matches and the gruff man behind the counter tossed her one as he puffed on his cigarette and continued to talk to another customer who'd arrived before her.

Angela coughed as she left the shop and wondered if she could really hack up a lung from all that cigarette smoke.

Jacob was still missing, and he apparently didn't want to be found. Frustration was beginning to set in. Would she ever find him? Would she ever be able to see him again? How would she ever find him? Apart from physically searching for him, which could easily take her entire life, she didn't know how else to find him. Her internet searches were getting her no where. She didn't even know if he was out there at all. Jacob wouldn't turn her away. Would he?

Angela found herself still standing outside Smokes4Less, wringing her hands. She turned and went back inside the shop.

"Gimme a pack of cigarettes," she said when the gruff man turned to see her.

"What'll ya have?"

"Whatever's cheapest."

He took a pack from the wall behind him as she dished out the money.

She pulled the plastic from around the package the minute she left the store. Finding a bench she sat down and opened the box, thwacking it against her palm to loosen the cigarettes. Finally prying one loose, she put it between her lips and lit it with a match. Taking her time now, to calm her nerves, she took a long, slow drag and coughed a bit when the nicotine entered her throat. But she didn't stop. She needed something to calm her down. Something to help her think rationally, before things got out of hand.

After several drags and more coughs, she began to get the hang of smoking again and sat on the bench, staring off into space, remembering her past. Her past with Sorcerer.

He'd helped her with so many things. If only Tilly had been so lucky as to have his help as well, she'd still be here today. Sorcerer had actually kicked her out of his chat room the first time they'd met, before she knew who the Praetorians were. Before she and Jacob had become close friends. She laughed a little, remembering his curt line of "get out of my chat room" as she blew out a long stream of smoke from her lips, enjoying its smoothness as it left her mouth.

* * *

Turning to see his followers, Jacob saw one of them reach for his belt. A red laser beam shot out and headed straight for Jacob. Ducking and running harder he tried to escape the laser, remembering the last time he'd been shot with one. It had taken him several days to decode the invisible location device surrounding his body and turn it off while they were chasing him. Not only that, but his back still hurt like hell where they'd shot him. He wasn't going to let that happen this time. Not while he could still see the laser beam before it had a chance to hit his body.

He rounded a sharp corner and saw the laser follow his body heat. A few seconds later, he heard them following behind the laser. Jacob knew it was zoned in on him specifically. So even though it was following his body heat, he couldn't walk by someone else and transfer it to them. It was locked onto him, and no one else.

* * *

After calming down a bit, Angela pulled the old poster out of her pocket and looked at it one last time prior to lighting a match and watching her face burn down to her fingertips. She threw the small corner that was left away into the wind before it could burn her skin. That part of her life was over. Thanks to Mariano and Jacob. Jacob, whom she had to find.

But the question was, where would he go? If he willingly wanted no part of her life after defeating the Praetorians, where would he go?

New York. He had his grandmother there. It would make sense that he would have stayed behind. Why hadn't she just gotten on a plane to New York in the first place? After all, she was in Washington, clear on the other side of the country.

Angela sighed and blew out a puff of smoke, wondering, if, for a split second, she could blow smoke rings as she stared across the street at her car parked along the curb. She wasn't close to home anymore to go back and leave the car there to catch a plane. Besides that, she hadn't been an FBI agent long enough to have enough money to afford a plane. On the other hand, gas was getting expensive.

She continued to sit there and debate her issues as her cigarette burned down to the end. She put it out and, without even thinking about it, got out another cigarette and lit it. With resolve she stood up and walked back to her car. Getting in, she threw the pack of cigarettes on the passenger's seat and started the engine. Leaving the small Washington town, she headed for New York.

* * *

Just how was Jacob going to avoid being hit with the laser beam? That was the question of his lifetime and he had no answers, as he stumbled down the narrow staircase, the laser following. But no, the real question of his lifetime was how to stay alive. How to stay one step ahead of these people. His computer skills were outdated compared to theirs and he felt lost as to what to do. There was never enough time to keep up with the new computer technology that was beginning to rule the world.

Jacob stepped too far over the edge of a step and fell forward onto the concrete staircase. Without screaming, he sighed, knowing this would be the end. The end of his life, as the laser beam hit him. He felt a vibration slide through him and his body temperature rose a few degrees above normal. The end was here and he couldn't even remember where he was or why he was there.

* * *

Angela stood on the side of the highway miles from anywhere, with nothing in sight in any direction, in the pitch black of night. Clouds had rolled in while she'd been driving and now they let loose a tempest of heavy wind and rain. All of her clothing from head to toe was soaked in seconds and she was glad her bag was water proofed, keeping her laptop and extra clothing dry. She looked at her smoking engine and sighed before getting back into her car and flipped open her cell phone.

"Hello, Skate here."

"Skate, hi."

"Ang?"

"Yeah, it's me."

"How's your mission going? You find Jacob yet?"

"No. I haven't. Look, I need you to do me a favor."

"Sure, anything."

"I'm out on the highway and my car just died on me. I've called a tow truck, Bland's Tow Truck Service, and they're gonna take it to the nearest garage. I need you to call them, and keep an eye on it for me, and make sure it gets back to my apartment OK. Alright? I'll reimburse you for whatever they charge you. I promise."

"What? What happened? Are you OK?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Car just died, that's all. Engine's smoking, the whole bit. But I'm fine. Now look, I've got to go. I've got to find a car someone who can take me as far as they can to New York. And I don't have much time."

"New York? Why there?"

"Because that's where he would have gone. Jacob's got a grandmother there. That's where he'll be. I figure. And I just...I just...need to see him again. At least one more time...you know?"

"Yeah. Don't worry, I got it all covered."

"Thanks, Skate."

"No problem."

She hung up and began walking away from her car, her thumb out in the cold wind.

* * *

Angela continued to walk along the side of the highway as the rain continued to pour down on her. She kept her thumb out, hoping someone would stop and pick her up, taking her as far along her route as possible. But no one came. Hours passed by and the night crawled on. And on.

* * *

A car's loud horn woke Angela from her light doze as she walked. Turning, she saw a small sedan pulling over to the side of the road beside her. The passenger side window rolled down and she leaned in to see the driver.

"What are you doing out on a night like this, honey? You need a ride?" the man asked.

He had short dark hair and wore the white collar of a priest around his neck.

"Yeah, I need a ride."

"Where you headed?" he asked as she climbed into the car.

"New York," she said.

"So, what are you doing hitching rides that far? Don't you know it's not safe?"

"Because I don't have a car. And I'm short on money for a plane or a bus or something. Besides, you picked me up. Why'd you do that if you knew it wasn't safe?"

"Hey, I'm a priest. No one would hurt a priest."

"Sounds a bit conceited for a priest."

"Gee thanks."

"Sorry. I didn't mean any disrespect. It's just that my best friend went missing and I'm trying to find him."

"Did you call the police? That's what you should do, rather than go out searching yourself."

"I did," she said, not wanting to reveal too much, even though he was a priest. "And when they couldn't find him I decided they were a bunch of bumbling idiots who really didn't care and took on the search for myself."

"Well, I'm afraid I'm not going all the way to New York."

"That's OK. Just take me as far as you can."

Angela dozed for a while, listening to the hum of the car's engine and the tires rolling over the smooth pavement. Her eyes closed and she forgot where she was and what she was doing for awhile.

* * *

The car lurched off the pavement onto a rough dirt road covered in rocks and pot holes. Angela came awake then and shook her head to clear it.

"Where are we?" she asked.

"Just a small cabin at the end of this road. You can spend the night there."

"What? But I don't want to spend the night. I wouldn't want to impose on you and I've got to keep my search up. I can't stop."

"You need some rest and some good food in you if you're going to find this friend of yours."

Angela's stomach rumbled, and she found she couldn't turn down the offer.

"What's your name, honey?" he asked.

"Angela. You?"

"Call me Johnny."

"OK. Well, thank you for everything Johnny."

"Ah, don't thank me. It's my duty to help people."

"Right."

He pulled into a small clearing at the end of the long dirt road and Angela could just make out the shape of a small cabin.

Inside, there were only four rooms, each of them small, and bare. Johnny showed her to the bedroom, where she found a twin bed, night stand, and dresser. There was a lamp on the night stand. Other than that, the place was spotless of dirt and other items.

"You can sleep here. It's really the only bed in the place. Can't afford much, you know."

"No, I...really. I don't want to put you out of your own bed."

"Don't worry about it. I'm used to hard ships. And the rocking chair is good for my back sometimes when it hurts."

The priest left her alone.

Once she had changed out of her wet clothes she climbed into bed and smiled at it's softness. She fell asleep, mumbling to Jacob that she'd continue the search as soon as she got up in the morning.

_

* * *

__Cold, hard steel encased her wrists. How many times did she have to tell them she wasn't Elizabeth Marx? Angela sat at the table in the interrogation room, wearing the orange jump suit of a prisoner. _

"Why did you kill her?" the woman asked, dressed in her best work suit.

"But I didn't!" Angela tried.

She shook her head and attempted to move her hands to get more comfortable but the handcuffs prevented any movement.

"No! You've got to believe me!" Angela cried out in her sleep.

"Shhhhh, just sleep," a male voice crooned into her ear.

Large hands glided over her skin as she tried to roll over in her sleep, but her left arm was stuck next to the pillow, preventing movement.


	6. part 6

**The Net: Still Running: Chapter 6**

Angela woke at the feel of a thick rope holding her wrists in place, holding her still. She blinked and looked around her, struggling to remember where she was. A cold breeze blew in from the open window nearby, raising goose bumps on her bare breasts. She looked down and found her body naked on the bed.

"You are so beautiful."

She looked beside the bed and found the priest there, kneeling on the floor, no longer wearing his white collar, his head just inches from her own. She stared at him, and tried to get up, but her wrists were bound to the bed frame.

* * *

Jacob lay in the stairwell for a few seconds, waiting for them to catch up to him and take him away to their new headquarters. Life was over. They would just keep chasing him down. Any little bit he succeeded in living after this would only end up being his running away while they chased him. There would be no relaxing on a sunny beach. Not even college and a good job was an option.

But they hadn't caught up with him yet. Why would they need to hurry? They knew the laser had caught up with him. Now they would know his every step, without having to exert their own energy. However, there was hope still. He had managed to get the laser off once before. He could do it again. He would. Somehow.

Jacob scrambled to his feet and dashed down the stairs. Finding his way through the car garage he tried opening car doors until a Rabbit let him in. He bent down and pulled wires apart behind the gas peddle, and rewired others. He grinned as the car purred to life. Climbing in and slamming the door, he zoomed away.

Once he was several miles away, he pulled into a Starbucks parking lot and turned on his computer, jacking into their wireless network. Accessing the codes for the laser he began rearranging them.

A new window popped up with another set of codes. Someone was searching for him again. He turned the new set of codes back to whoever it was that was searching for him. He didn't know who it was or where they were, but he didn't care. He was on his own in this, with no one to help him. It could only be those who's laser had latched onto him earlier.

Going back to the laser's codes, he worked for a few more minutes, trying to get the low vibrations in his body to stop until his stomach grumbled loudly. He knew he hadn't eaten since the day before. He looked up longingly at the Starbucks in front of him, knowing full well he couldn't risk entering. He was already hacking into their wireless network and he'd already spent too much time there.

Shutting down his computer he put the car in gear and sped away.

* * *

Angela trembled under the Priest's warm hands on her bare skin.

"Please, please don't," she begged.

"Your friend can wait," he said. "It's my turn to be with you now."

As he climbed up onto the bed over her, she moved her legs to keep them together and to keep him out, realizing that he'd only tied her hands to the bed and not her feet. Thinking wildly, her knee came up as he came down on her, and pushed hard into his crotch. He nearly screamed as he was pushed to the side a little. Her leg came up and she clonked him in the head with the side of her foot. He fell to the floor, his head hitting the hard wood rendering him unconscious. She worked on getting her hands free, desperately trying to slide them through the ropes which were almost cutting through her skin, they were so tight.

Her eyes blurred with tears the longer it took. Her skin was becoming raw where the ropes rubbed over and over again but she refused to stop, not wanting to allow the sick bastard to win or to lose Jacob. To lose Jacob would kill her, she could feel it deep inside. Nothing this man could do would kill her. She'd be left hurt and ashamed, but she'd still be there, able to feel those emotions. But if she lost Jacob forever, her soul would be gone. Outside, she'd be alive and breathing, but inside, she'd be dead, black as the dark night with the moon gone. Her heart sunk as if a huge chunk of dark grey poisonous lead had landed in it at the thought of Jacob gone from her life forever. She pushed and pulled her wrists harder and faster to loosen the ropes.

A groan coming from the floor made Angela stop and listen. Movement sounded and the naked priest slowly stood up. Seeing her wrists bloody and raw, he shook his head.

"You were so beautiful. Why did you have to go and ruin that?"

She said nothing, just looked up at him a look of shock frozen on her face. He wasn't supposed to come to before she got free. But he had.

"Well, that's OK," he said when she didn't respond. "The rest of you is still good, untouched."

He looked her up and down and smiled then grinned before collapsing to the ground again, at the contact with her right foot. Twisted onto her side now from the kick she saw a small knife lying on the floor next to a coil of rope that had been cut to form her bonds. Twisting her body further, she reached down with her right foot and attempted to grasp the knife handle between her toes.

A breeze through the window gave her goose bumps as the knife dropped to the floor again and again before she finally managed to get it up onto the bed where she pushed it towards one of her bound hands, grasped it and turned her wrist to saw through the rope.

With one hand free, she unbound the other and threw the knife on the floor. Ignoring her painful wrists bleeding more now, she threw her clothes on, grabbed her bag of belongings and ran out the door.

Rain still poured down and stung at her skin, clearing away the blood almost as fast as it came out it seemed. She ran on, and on, and on, as far and as fast as she could go, until she could run no more. Breathing heavily, she slowed down to a walk and stuck her thumb out in the wind and rain, hoping and praying the priest wouldn't come looking for her, wishing with everything she had that it would be someone else, someone to take her far away from this ugly place, to take her to Jacob.

A tiny bubble of a thought burst in her head. What if it was Jacob that found her? What if he was looking for her? And he was driving along this dark highway and pulled over and it was her, and it was him?

A car horn pulled her from her thoughts and she turned to see a rusted out truck pull over. Angela got in, glad to get out of the rain.

"Where you bound for tonight?" the man asked as he pulled back out onto the highway.

"East," Angela said. "I'm just going east."

She didn't look at the man, almost afraid he would turn into the priest, even though he was driving a truck and his voice was deeper. She kept her head down, staring at her bloody wrists, which had slowly begun to stop bleeding.

"Looks like you could stand to see a doctor there, about that."

"No. I'm fine."

"You sure? That really doesn't look very good...you know the wrist is one of the worst places to cut yourself."

"I said I'm fine."

"Alright. If you say so. Cause I could easily take you into town. I know a guy..."

"You know what? Why don't you just drop me off right here."

"But we're still on the highway."

"Let me out."

"Are you sure?"

"Now."

The man sighed as he pulled over and she got out into the pouring rain.

Angela sat down on the shoulder of the road, in the dirt and watched as the truck pulled away and drove down the highway. She would have to get help for her wrists. She knew that. But there wasn't going to be any doctors. No one who would have a record of her stopping there. Of her existence. The Priest might find her that way. Might catch her again. Just like Sean Trelawney and the Praetorians.

Her tears blended in with the rain on her cheeks as she pulled out Jacob's picture and stared at it for awhile in the rain. She watched, mesmerized, as the drops of water landed on Jacob's face and ran down the picture to fall off onto the ground. Jacob. It was true what she'd been thinking before. If she lost him forever, her soul would die right along with him. She'd had boyfriends before, but had never felt this way about any of them. This man she knew, was the one for her. She just had to find him. And not giving up was very important.

The rain suddenly stopped. After confirming that the rain had indeed stopped and the clouds had rolled away to reveal the stars Angela got up and began walking in the direction the truck had disappeared in. Her wrists had begun to hurt a great deal more now than they had before and she gritted her teeth to keep the pain down a little bit. Reaching into her pocket for a much needed cigarette she found that the box was soaked through just like her clothes. Sighing she put them back and walked on.

Several hours later she reached the town the man in the truck had been talking about and found the local drug store. She carefully pulled out her wallet and counted her money. She had enough to buy the things she needed. Entering into the store she kept her wrists covered with the sleeves of her shirt and quickly pulled what she needed off the shelves, not daring to look at anything else, and not wanting to take too long. Among her purchases were strips of bandages plus ointment and some Tylenol for her wrists and the pain. She also bought some snack food as she was getting hungry again and a fresh box of cigarettes, trashing the old one on her way out the door.

Across the street she saw a Starbucks and knew they had wireless internet for their customers. There was a large tree just outside of the café next to the parking lot and she went to sit underneath it on the other side so no one would see her. She flipped her laptop open and logged onto the internet, quickly sending out the codes once again to search for Jacob. While she waited she used a little spit to clean off her wrists and put the new bandages on, further stopping the flow of blood. When the codes came back they clearly told her he was hacked onto the Starbucks wireless internet here, in this small nameless town. But then, so was she. And every other time she'd searched for him, sending out the codes online, they'd been turned back on herself. Who was to say this wasn't the same thing happening again.

But why was Jacob doing this to her? And if it wasn't him, then who was it? And why? Always why. Always.

Angela sat under the tree and smoked her cigarette until it was nearly gone and her nerves had been calmed somewhat. A car started up in the Starbucks parking lot, though she hadn't heard anyone leave the café. Peering around the tree she saw an old rabbit leave the lot and drive down the street. She sighed and put out her cigarette, not knowing what to do next in her search for Jacob.

What she did know was that Walter, and probably Skate too, believed her to be a looney. When she got back to Seattle she wouldn't have a job left. Even if she did show up with Jacob beside her. But what if it was true? What if she really was insane? What if Jacob really didn't exist? Maybe he'd been sent to help her deal with the Praetorians and nothing more? But that couldn't be true. Because now she needed him in her life even with the Praetorians gone. The thought of Jacob not existing at all sent shivers up and down her spine and she could feel an icy coldness creeping into her heart. She pulled out the picture of him again just to prove to herself that he was real, that she wasn't going insane.

She got up and made her way to the cheap hotel across the street and wearily crawled into bed. Willing the visions of the priest out of her head she instead remembered waking up beside Jacob in similar hotel rooms while still being chased by the Praetorians. It had always felt good to know he was there in the next bed, going through the same thing she was. This night she laid her head on her pillow alone and vowed that she would find Jacob soon. As soon as she could.

* * *

Jacob drove out of town and got onto the highway, driving for a fair bit before pulling over and taking an hour nap. From there he entered the next town where he parked the rabbit on a street corner and pulled off the license plates, tossing them into a garbage dumpster a few blocks away. He then sold the car as a junker for five hundred dollars and set off on foot with his backpack across town, remembering all the times he'd spent in hotel rooms with Angela. He began to miss her a lot and he wanted to see her again but he didn't know where she was these days. She was originally from Seattle, before joining him in New York to fight the Praetorians. And though he was in Washington State now, who knew if she'd returned here or not. For all he knew she could have moved to Wisconsin, to get away from everything and to avoid people at all costs.

What happened that day, the last day he'd seen her, he really didn't know. He could only hope she'd escaped with her proper identity and was living her life again. He knew he would never get the chance to see her again. They wanted him and they were going to get him, no matter what it took. They'd only been using her to get to him. But if she was free of them, living her life again, did she ever think of him? Did she ever miss him? The way he was missing her now? He didn't know why these thoughts came to him. After all she was nine years older than he was. She wouldn't be missing him at all.

With his eyes struggling to stay open Jacob sat down in an abandoned doorway and opened his computer, still intent on breaking the invisible tracking laser surrounding his body.

* * *

The next morning after Angela had gotten up early and had breakfast she hailed a taxi. Not knowing where to go next she told the driver to head in the direction the Rabbit had gone the night before. To the next town over.

On a side street in the new town Angela saw several suspicious characters all walking in a row, their heads bent low as if intent on catching or killing something. Or someone. They all wore long black trench coats and it looked like they were carrying large weaponry underneath them.

Upon seeing the creepy group her taxi driver sped up until he came to the main street where he turned right and quickly dropped her off before speeding away. Angela was left on the curb without a clue as to where she was or who the creepy guys were or who they were after. Walking up the street as dawn broke over the land Angela thought she saw a familiar form in one of the doorways across the street clutching a laptop as he slept. But she couldn't be too sure. Then the trench coated group rounded the corner onto Main Street.

Immediately the familiar looking figure jumped to his feet and dashed off, away from the trenched men. They walked with even more purpose when they saw him run, but they did not chase after him.

Seeing his fleet body run down the street Angela recognized him as the teen she'd thought he was. No homeless person would be carrying a laptop anyway. Jacob was out of sight before she could blink but the men following him didn't slow down. Or speed up. They continued on in the same determined pace. Not knowing what to do Angela followed them at a safe distance. But then they too disappeared and she couldn't find them, no matter how many roads she crossed and alleys she carefully scouted out.

It began to get dark and she realized she hadn't had lunch or dinner yet. Her stomach rumbled and even though she didn't want to call off the search she knew they were gone and she wouldn't find them.

_

* * *

Dear Jacob,_

I know I haven't written in a long time. I'm sorry. I quit my job to find you. I've been on the road. My car's busted. Skate has it now. I've been hitching rides, but it hasn't worked out well. First guy was a woman-loving priest and that's putting it lightly. Jacob, I just don't get it. I don't know how I could have not seen it coming. You know? I'm an FBI agent now. I went through all those weeks of training. I should have seen it coming. He tried to hurt me, but I managed to get free. I'll spare you the grisly details. The other guy wanted me to see a doctor about my cut wrists. But you know I can't do that. Then there'll be records of my existence in the town. The priest could find me that way. You've been through the Praetorians. You know.

I heard this song on the radio. By Elvis. I've forgotten the lyrics now, but there was something about the Kentucky rain, and it's been raining here in Washington for days. This guy is searching for his girl because she left and he doesn't know why. And it seems to be exactly what I'm going through. Though the priest he met was nicer than mine. Jacob, I keep seeing you. Everywhere I go. I'm never sure if it's you but I run after you anyway, and then you disappear. I can't take much more of this, Jacob. The next time, it has to be you. It has to be you, and you can't disappear on me again. I need to see you, to talk to you, face to face at least one more time before I die. Promise me that, Jacob. That's all I'm asking. Please. I miss you. Maybe too much, maybe I really am going insane...but I miss you just the same. -Angel


	7. part 7

**The Net: Still Running: Chapter 7**

The next morning after finding another cheep motel and attempting to get a good night's sleep she wandered into the small grocery store next door to find some cheep cold cereal for breakfast. Surveying the cereal she heard the sound of a plastic bag popping open and the concealed air being released from the next isle over.

"You can't eat that! You have to pay!" one of the store clerks exclaimed.

Standing on tip-toe Angela peered over the shelves to see a young brown haired teen reach into his pocket and pull out some loose change while still madly chowing down on the bread in his other hand.

Just then, as the clerk was counting the change and frowning at the small amount, the front door opened and the trench-coated men walked in, their large weapons raised. The clerk froze and Jacob dashed away, with no place to go.

Angela ripped her service gun out of it's holster by her hip and leaped out into the main isle, firing her gun at the men while she grabbed Jacob's arm and held on tight. The men were stunned, and stopped dead in their tracks for a second, just enough to let Angela and Jacob get away. She pulled him out of the store's back door and over to her motel room where she quickly locked and secured the door. Looking out the peep hole she watched the men leave the store and walk across the street into another store. They came out seconds later and headed down the street in the other direction.

Turning to face Jacob who'd sat down on her unmade bed, Angela only stared at him, unsure what to say.

"Why didn't you call me or something?" she finally asked.

"Like I knew your number or where you were living?"

"You're a computer geek, just like me. Of course you could figure that out. Jacob, I could have been helping you!"

"No. No. No. They wanted me all along. They were only using you to get to me. And when you finally had your life back, I didn't want to ruin that."

"Yeah, but I was picked up by the FBI."

"What?! You mean? Your name?"

"I'm an agent now. So why wouldn't you want me on your side?"

"Agent?"

"Yup."

Angela showed him her badge, and her weapon which was now safely back in her holster.

"I have a new name. Erin Jack."

"Wait...Erin Jack? That's the biggest case out there right now. Shit. This explains why your social never worked when I tried it. Damn, I wish I'd known. But what about the messages? The FBI's been getting cryptic messages from Erin."

"They're fake. Sent out by those Trenches. They want me to be caught so they can take me. Same as Trelawney always did before."

Angela pulled the pack of cigarettes out of her pocket, and took one out of the box.

"Angel?"

Jacob looked at her with a confused look on his face as she lit the cigarette and stuffed it in her mouth. She sat down and stared at the floor, inhaling the nicotine.

"It's a recent habit," she said, finally looking up at him. "I used to smoke sometimes in college. I quit cold turkey when I graduated. But since losing you, my life hasn't been the same. This whole thing has been crazy. It's been getting to my brain. My boss and co-worker think I'm going insane. Sometimes I think I am too. This helps me calm down."

A worried look crossed his face. But he did not get up and take it from her.

"I'm OK, really," she said, seeing the look. "But tell me about them. Who are those creepy guys?"

"The Praetorians. I told you, they were using you the whole time to get to me. But they didn't know who I was at the time. And now they've figured it out and know who I am."

"Jacob, those were not the Praetorians. I saw them. They couldn't be."

"They are. The new Praetorians. Super high tech. It takes me days to get their locators off me. And with one of those, they don't have to keep a close watch on me. They just have to look at their computer screen and know were I am at all times."

"Damn."

She looked back at Jacob and noticed for the first time the dark rings underneath his eyes, signaling his lack of sleep in a long time.

"You need sleep," she said.

"No. I can't. I shouldn't even be here talking to you. They'll find me easily. You're only next door to that store. I need to go."

He was also thin, as if he hadn't eaten in a long time either, and the way he'd chowed down on the bread earlier, further proved this thought.

"You need to eat too. I'm not letting you go." She looked around the room for something to eat and found a box of cereal she hadn't even known she'd grabbed lying on the floor by the door.

"Look, I've got several clips left, we'll be fine here. But you need food and rest."

"And you need to stop smoking."

She ignored that last comment and grabbed the box, handing it to Jacob, who tore it open and began to thrust handfuls of the fruity Os into his mouth and chew furiously.

"I'm sorry there's no milk," she said, staring at him, just glad to know that he was alive and safe. All she could do was stare at him, amazed to see him once again. Her mind flashed back to meeting Walter and then Skate at Quantico and she regretted that Jacob hadn't been there to share in those moments.

Jacob hadn't said a word while he ate and when he was done he closed the box and threw it on the bed.

"I should go," he finally said.

"No. You need rest."

"Angel, they'll find me here. I don't want to bring you into this. And I have to stay one step ahead of them."

"Jacob, you brought me into this back when I got that message I wasn't supposed to see, before I met Sean Trelawney. You brought me into this, and I'm not getting out until we're both out. You have no idea what my life has been like without you, and I don't want to go through that again. Together we'll beat them. And this time we'll win. I promise. Now get some sleep. I'll keep watch. I didn't go to Quantico for nothing."

Jacob sighed and moved back towards the pillows. A slight scream escaped his lips as he moved.

"What's wrong?" Angela asked.

"Nothing. Nothing. Don't worry. I'm fine."

But he wasn't fine, and it was obvious in the way he gritted his teeth as he moved to lay down. Angela hurried to his side and sat down.

"Tell me what's wrong."

"It's just the locators. I'll be fine."

"Explain these locators."

He sighed. "They shoot me with a laser when they think I'm going to get away and it hits me, clings to me, and to get it off I have to erase the codes so they can't be used anymore."

"Where do they hit you?"

"Usually my back. Since I'm running away."

"Roll over. Let me see."

"No, Angel, please."

"Roll over."

Jacob reluctantly did as he was told and Angela moved his shirt to see his back. In his lower back she found something metal that had clamped down hard into his skin. A small bit of dried blood surrounded it. There was another one near his right shoulder blade. But while this one had no dried blood his skin was blue and puffy around it.

"Oh my God. Jacob, you need to get these taken care of. Get them out of you."

"I can't. What doctor would be able to? What doctor in his right mind would look at those, and without questions, say 'yeah, sure, I can get those out for you' like I had rotted teeth or something. Besides, it would come up on the radar screen. The Praetorians would know about it and know where I am and it would be a big mess."

"I know a doctor who used to play online chess with my best friend. I'm sure he would help. Without questions."

"Steven Graff, of course."

"Get some sleep. In eight hours I'll wake you and we can get out of here. I think I might have just enough money to rent a car and get us out to Chicago."

Angela pulled the covers up over him and taking the cereal box she went back to the chair she'd been sitting in earlier. She watched Jacob close his eyes and slowly fall asleep as she took her gun and laid it out on the desk to be ready in case of an emergency. Her one bag was already packed and ready for her to leave in a hurry. She began to eat the rest of the cereal, careful not to wake Jacob with loud movements.

Seven hours later Jacob shot out of bed, his eyes wide.

"They're coming!" he exclaimed, getting out of bed as fast as possible while gritting his teeth from the pain in his back.

Angela jumped to her feet, dropping the empty cereal box to the floor, grabbing her weapon and her bag.

Running out the door Jacob looked up the street to their right and saw the trench coated men coming their way. He pushed Angela to the left.

"MOVE!" he roared and together they ran down the street and onto a side street, where they turned down another street and ran like hell.

"Ang! Jump in!"

Angela stopped at a familiar voice calling her name.

"Angel, move!" Jacob urged her on but she hung back and turned to see her old car in the next street over.

In the driver's seat was Skate with the window rolled down waving her over. She pulled Jacob's arm and ran towards the car. She opened the back door and pushed him inside and slid in beside him.

"Angel, what are we doing?" Jacob asked in confusion.

"Skate, drive! Get us out of here! We need to get to Chicago. I hope you know the way!"

Skate stepped on the gas peddle and the car sped forward.

"No, I don't really. But I'm sure we can stop and ask for directions."

"No. We've got Praetorians on our heels. Advanced Praetorians."

"I thought they were gone!"

"They're not. Now drive!"

"Who's he?" Jacob finally asked. "And how does he know about the Praetorians?"

"His name's Skate. Skate, this is Jacob. I met Skate at Quantico and he now works with me."

Jacob gave her a look that clearly asked whether or not she trusted him and she nodded.

"You never did tell me what you do within the FBI," he said.

"We help police the internet."

Jacob snorted. "Good one. Good one. Not with these jokers still alive you can't."

Angela nodded again. "I know."

"What's in Chicago? If you don't mind my asking," Skate asked.

"Does Walter know you're out here?"

"Walter?"

"Boss."

Jacob nodded.

"You asked me a question back at Quantico, about what I would do if someone shot you? Remember that?"

"Of course."

"I stand by that answer I gave you. When your car was done in the garage and they called me to pick it up, I just packed up and left. Told Walter I needed to take a week off from work after he dropped me off to pick up your car. And that was that."

Jacob looked surprised, and almost scared to know that there was another man in her life who had already devoted himself to her while he'd been gone.

"So, what's in Chicago?" Skate asked again.

"A doctor. We need to get him to a doctor. ASAP."

"I'll have to get gas soon."

"Just get us as far away from here as you can before we make any stops." Angela sighed. "We'll also need to get some food."

"Got that covered. There's a cooler in the trunk with all my stuff."

"You're awesome Skate."

"Thanks."

Angela turned to Jacob to see the dark circles under his eyes had not moved since she'd last seen them.

"It's going to be a long ride. You should lay down and get some rest."

Jacob only looked at her and then behind them, out the back window.

"Don't worry, you're safe. I'll take care of you, make sure nothing happens to you."

She watched as his eyes drooped closed for a few seconds before his eyelids popped back open. She reached out and took him into her arms, pulling him towards her so that his head was resting in her lap. He closed his eyes at her bidding and was soon asleep.

"Ang, do you know how far it is to Chicago from here? I know we're almost over the boarder and out of Washington, but do you know?" Skate asked.

"I know it's far. But there's a doctor there that can help him."

"What's wrong. Why can't he see a doctor here? I'm sure we've got someone in Washington State that can..."

"No. You don't understand. They've done something to him. I can't explain it. But this doctor will help him. He helped me once when I was shot. He used to play Chess online with Jacob, and...just get us there, OK?"

"OK, but how serious is this?"

"I don't know. I don't know fully what they did to him."

"I think you'd better get plane tickets."

"I can't risk it. I don't have names. They know me. If I buy tickets and they find out I'm with him, it'll all be over. They'll get me too. Change me back to Liz Marx and then I can't help him."

"Ang, you're forgetting something. We're FBI. We can make aliases. Easy as pie. When we stop for the night I'll make us some. And then we can get plane tickets and get him there faster." There was a long pause and then, "I can see it in your eyes."

"What?" Angela had been watching Jacob sleep, still glad to see him again, glad to know he was still alive and in her arms. She just wanted to hold him tight to never let him go, but she was afraid of hurting him with the trackers still in his back. And she didn't want to wake him up. She looked up at Skate who briefly looked back at her.

"I can tell how much you care about him. The way you're watching him, and caring for him. Most people wouldn't go to all this trouble for someone unrelated to them."

"You're going through all this trouble too, Skate."

"No. It's not the same. You're more emotionally attached than I am. To him. It's something I can't explain."

Angela nodded silently, having gone back to watching Jacob while he slept.

"We are related," she said after awhile. "Sean Trelawney did that to us. The Praetorians. Both our fathers worked for them once, and died under their hands. They brought us together. And there's nothing that can change what happened or pull us apart. It's just a fact of our lives now."


	8. part 8

**The Net: Still Running: Chapter 8**

Stopping at a cheap motel the next night Angela sat beside Jacob while Skate was in the shower. In her hand she clutched the journal she'd been writing in ever since she's entered the front gate at Quantico many months before.

"Jacob, losing you ruined my life. I vowed to find you again, no matter what it took, or how long. Even if you had gone back to New York and never wanted to see me again, for whatever reason. Now that I've found you, I'm not letting you out of my sight until this is all over and you decide to leave. With that being said, this belongs to you."

Angela handed him her journal.

"What's this?" he asked.

"Everything I wanted to tell you since getting out of jail after taking down Trelawney. You don't have to read it if you don't want to. But I addressed it to you, so it's only fair that you have it."

Jacob's eyes grew wide at her words and almost seemed to be smiling but he was speechless, unable to say a word.

"When I say I missed you, Jacob, I really mean that."

Skate came out of the bathroom wearing an old t-shirt and his boxers, intent on getting some shut-eye.

"I'm gonna take a quick shower, and then I'll stay up and keep watch," Angela said, heading to the bathroom and leaving Jacob to mull over everything she'd just told him.

* * *

"You said they were gone," Skate said, looking over at Angela in the front passenger seat while he drove. Jacob was asleep in the back seat, using Angela's fleece jacket as a pillow, and his own as a blanket. "Ang, you told me you'd defeated them. So how did they come back? I thought they were dead?"

"I don't know," she answered. "Jacob tells me they're more technologically advanced. And they are, viewing the trackers they were using on him." she shuddered at the thought of what they had done to him. "Somehow they survived the fire fight we gave them, and here they are."

"But why? What do they have to do with you? I still don't get that."

"It's because Jacob has one of the most brilliant minds when it comes to computers. He sent me the file about my father in Copper Canyon, though I still don't know why. I guess just so that I could know about it. And they came after me because I wasn't supposed to see it. But now they're after him and they don't care about me. Jacob tells me it's because they were using me to get to him the whole time. And now that they know who he is, they don't need me anymore."

"So, they didn't know who he was? But they knew you?"

"He had an alias online, and anytime they saw him with me, they never made the connection. Until now."

* * *

That night Skate had the first watch at the window of the motel room while Angela and Jacob got their sleep. Before he went on watch he took a quick shower. While he had the water running Angela inspected Jacob's back to make sure nothing had changed. He was still in a lot of pain.

"I wasn't asleep this afternoon," he said, grimacing from her touch.

"What do you mean?"

"I heard what you said about the Praetorians, about me."

"I trust him, Jacob."

"It's not that. I never did tell you the truth."

"The truth? About what?"

"About me. And the Praetorians."

"See, I was looking into what had happened to my father. Now he was the greatest mind when it came to computers. Not me. And I found out about Copper Canyon, and started to dig deeper, and they came after me. You know he and I shared the same screen name. They saw that and thought I was him or something. And I was worried they'd get me and this secret would die with me. So, I reached out to the only other person I knew who could be trusted. I'd heard about you on the internet, how people said you were amazing at what you did and everything. So, I sent that message to you, but then I had second thoughts. Would you even look at it. You didn't know who I was. And then they started to go after you, hard. Harder than they went after me, surprisingly, and I thought it was an opportunity to help you, and together we could defeat them and they'd never be able to put my name with my face. But by the end, they'd figured me out. And when you were down in the travel agency getting your life back and I was upstairs working the computers, they came. That's when they unleashed those guys in the trench coats. They'd been saving them for just such an occasion. For when they thought the organization was going down. They didn't want to go down and they made sure it never would. You may have killed all the original Praetorians, Sean Trelawney, his goons, and Mr. White did himself in. But not these guys. They're suped up. They will stop at nothing. And it was then that they started to chase me. All I could do was run. And leave you with Mariano and pray that you would be OK and that you would make it out alive with your identity back."

"Jacob, none of that matters anymore. You did what you had to in order to survive. I would have done the same thing in your shoes."

"Thanks, I guess."

"Don't thank me. Now look, Skate's taking the first watch tonight so you and I can get some sleep. OK?"

"Sure."

"Your back looks the same so far, how does it feel?"

"It still hurts, and I'm tired of sleeping on my stomach."

* * *

It was late at night in another motel when Angela was woken up by Jacob's near screaming from the other bed. Skate had the second watch of the night and Angela ordered him to keep watching for Praetorians while she ran over to Jacob's bed to see what was wrong.

"Jacob, Jacob wake up!"

He had rolled onto his back in his sleep. She quickly ripped the covers off him and rolled him back onto his stomach as he woke up.

"Are you OK?"

"No. No. It hurts like hell."

Angela pulled his shirt up to see if anything had changed and found that things had. They looked different somehow, as if they had dug deeper into Jacob's skin, like tentacles. Parts of his skin that had been blue was now turning black.

"We're going to have to get you on a plane. Driving is going to take too long."

"No! I can't take a plane!"

"Jacob, no arguments. This is getting worse, and you're taking a plane."

Angela got up and grabbed her computer, turning it on as she walked to save time. Landing on the bed beside him, she went online and began looking up the cheapest plane tickets she could find to Chicago.

Jacob pulled the screen down so that he could look at her over the computer.

"Angel, they'll find me, and kill me. And then they'll go after you!" his eyes were pleading for her not to buy the tickets.

"There's a chance I can save you from them. Remember, I've had FBI training. So has Skate. But these trackers, I can't save you from them. And I...I think they might kill you if we don't get you to Dr. Graff soon."

Jacob was silent and Angela bought the tickets before putting the computer away and laying back down beside him.

"Besides, Skate and I had a talk the other day. He made aliases for all of us and we're close enough now to an airport that can take us to Chicago. We just can't get there fast enough by car. We just can't."

Skate was still standing beside the window, keeping an eye out for anyone suspicious.

"I'm sorry, Jacob," she said, pulling the covers back up over them both.

"No. It's OK. Whatever you think is best. An FBI escort sounds nice," Jacob chuckled.

From the corner of her eye Angela saw Skate turn from the window and look at her questioningly.

"Yes, I bought you a ticket too. He's going to need all the protection he can get," she said to him.

"I don't know how much protection I'm going to be. Remember, I failed at the shooting range."

"You did not fail, Skate. In the end, you did quite well."

"Right."

Angela sighed, before getting out of Jacob's bed and crossing the room back to her own. "You're much better than you think you are. Now, get back to keeping watch. Jacob, go back to sleep. I booked the flight for lunch time tomorrow."

* * *

Several hours later Angela was still wide awake as Jacob slept soundly in the next bed and Skate sat watch at the window. Craving a cigarette she got up and took the nearly empty pack from her bag.

Skate turned to look at her questioningly. "Can't sleep?" he asked.

"Pretty much," she said lighting the cigarette and taking a long drag.

"Since when do you smoke?"

"Since recently. This whole thing has me going crazy. I just don't know what to do."

"Ang, you worry too much. That's all. What ever they did to him, we'll get it fixed."

"Skate, I can't help but worry. What if something goes wrong? What if we don't get him there on time? You know, a long time ago, when I first met him, I almost laughed my ass off because he was so young. Nine years younger than me. And I couldn't believe he was the man I'd been talking to online, the one I'd entrusted my life to. But it was true. He helped get me back on my feet. And my life isn't the same without him. It just isn't."

Skate only nodded, keeping an eye out the window. Angela leaned against the wall, the cigarette in her mouth, as she watching Jacob sleep.

"I used to smoke when I was younger," she said out of nowhere. "When I was in college. I didn't smoke much. Once a day. And I quit easily after a few years. But this, what's going on right now, is just too much for my heart to handle by itself."

Angela put out her stub and lit another cigarette, turning to face the window. The two of them were silent as they stared out the window together, watching out for the trench coated men hot on Jacob's heels.

* * *

The next morning while Jacob was in the shower and Skate was getting a few moments of sleep Angela watched the news and was surprised to see a picture of Jacob on the screen above the name Erin Jack. The news anchor said he'd been sighted a few towns back but the FBI was still after him and he hadn't been caught. Yet. But she was FBI and she knew where he was. He would come with her nicely if she asked him. He would set off the metal detectors with those trackers in his back, and wouldn't be able to explain them. And his identity would be compromised. They would recognize him.

Skate woke up already dressed and ready to go. Jacob came out of the bathroom dressed but with hair that was still wet a few seconds later.

"Jacob, I'm going to have to arrest you," Angela said, standing up.

Jacob looked from her to Skate and back again. "What the hell...?"

"It's for the best. You're on the news, spotted a few towns ago but obviously you haven't been arrested yet by the FBI. I'm going to arrest you, and Skate and I will be your escort through the airport. We can't take the cuffs off you, so they'll cover for the trackers when you go through the metal detectors. It's the only way Jacob."

"But then you'll have to admit that you've got Erin arrested. What will happen when they find out that you don't?"

"We'll just say you escaped. Don't worry about that now. Let's just get going. We've got a flight in three hours."

"So you mean I have to be in handcuffs the entire time?"

"From the moment we get into my car. I don't want anything to look off when we get there and if you arrive without cuffs, that won't look good."

Jacob sighed and began packing his bag.

"Ang, I did make aliases for all of us."

"They won't work because his face has already been seen on TV. And we're going through an airport. There will be too many cops who might recognize him."

"Right."

* * *

Angela and Skate got out of the car when they got to the airport. Skate went to the trunk and pulled out one duffle bag and two back packs while Angela went around to Jacob's door and helped him out of the back seat. He was already handcuffed as he stood up and let Angela lead him away from the car.

"This is really degrading. You know that, Angel. Really," Jacob said, eyeing both agents in their black suits, white shirts, and masculine shoes. Angela had her hair up in a small, tight bun to keep it out of the way and to help make herself look that much more menacing and FBI-like.

"Jacob, you're supposed to be under arrest. That means you can't call me that. Act like you hate me. And look towards the ground. That's what most people do when they're arrested."

"Right. Good idea. Less chance of anyone recognizing me. You know it almost scares me that you know that."

Jacob did as he was told and looked sullenly at the ground as they walked across the parking lot towards the terminal.

Once inside Angela led Jacob towards the ticket counter, her hand keeping a good grip on his arm at all times. Skate held their bags and walked behind them, keeping an eye on Jacob in case he decided to bolt on them, like a real criminal might.

"What's with him?" the woman at the ticket counter asked, nodding towards Jacob when she saw his hands cuffed behind his back.

Both Angela and Skate pulled their badges out and showed them to the woman. "We're FBI, Ma'am," Angela said. "Just escorting him back to prison in Chicago, that's all."

The woman nodded again and handed them their boarding passes.

"If you'll just hold on one moment, I need to call security to walk you through the building. They have to let the pilot and assistants know you're on board."

"Of course."

The three of them waited patiently while she made the phone call and again until security arrived to escort them to the waiting area. Jacob stood beside Angela, quiet, heaving a slow sigh only once. He did look like a criminal dejected at having finally been caught at his crime.

Walking away from the counter Angela kept her mouth shut, as if she was leading a real criminal, when all she wanted to do was to speak her inner thoughts aloud to the men with her. One step down. Now they just had to get to the waiting area, board the plane, fly to Chicago, and get through that airport. After that all they had to do was get to the hospital where Steven Graff worked in the ER.

At the waiting area, Skate and Angela sat on either side of Jacob, still in handcuffs, while the security officer sat on Angela's other side.

"Hand me that newspaper, will ya Tim," Angela asked, pointing across Jacob to the paper on the chair beside the other agent.

Skate did a double take at hearing his real name but he handed her the paper none-the-less. Angela opened it and began to read a section when she put it down and looked towards the security guy.

"Do you have to be here? I'd rather not cause a scene or anything."

"I have to be. Just until you board. I have to make sure the pilot and crew know you're bringing an arrested man on board. I'm sorry."

"No, that's OK. It's your job. You do what you have to."

Angela went back to reading the paper while Skate watched the TV on the wall across the room and Jacob sat between them, staring at his lap.

"What did he do anyway?" the security officer asked a few minutes later.

"Internet crimes. But I can't say more than that."

"Oh. You mean like downloading music?"

"That, yes, and worse. But I can't talk about it." She took part of the paper she was reading and handed it to him. "Here, read the paper to keep yourself busy if you must."

As Angela picked up her own paper she caught a glimpse of several men moving together as one. Like a large mass of gelatin. Looking up she noticed they were all wearing long trench coats and recognized them as the men who had been chasing them. Looking over at Jacob she saw him looking over at her lap while still keeping his head down.

"I'm bored," he said, upon seeing her looking over at him. "Can I read the paper?"

"No you can't read the paper," she said haughtily, for the security man's benefit. "Because then I would have to hold it for you, and I don't wan to do that. Just keep your head down so that no one recognizes you and we create World War Three here. OK?"

Jacob sighed, and kept his head low as Skate looked up to see what Angela was looking at. He glanced over at her to see what she was going to do about it and followed her lead.

Angela sat up straighter and saw the men scan the room in search of Jacob. They looked in her direction, but she'd lowered the paper so they could easily see the badge she wore, but not her entire face. She watched them out of the corner of her eye to be sure they wouldn't cause trouble for the prisoner they were escorting.

A few minutes later they'd moved on, taking her badge for the meaning she'd meant it to have. She relaxed and heard Jacob sigh.

"What was that about?" the security officer asked, having never picked up the paper to read it.

"They looked like the trouble causing type. That's all."

"Oh."

"Flight to Chicago now boarding," the flight attendant said from the podium a few feet away.

Angela stood up and took Jacob's arm, lifting him out of the seat while Skate picked up their bags. The security officer went ahead of them onto the plane and they followed a few feet behind.

"How's your back?" Angela whispered when she was sure no one was close to them.

"It hurts like hell," Jacob whispered back. "I hurt all over."

"I'm sorry. We'll get you to Dr. Graff as soon as possible. I promise."

As they reached the turn in the tunnel to the plane, they met the security officer coming back the other way.

"The pilot is waiting for you," he said.

"Thanks," Skate answered.

Reaching the door of the plane the three of them found two flight attendants and the pilot waiting for them, just as the officer had said they would be.

"Hi, you must be the FBI agents?"

"Yes, I'm Agent Esseray and this is Agent Bennett."

"Good to know," the pilot said. "Well, for the sake of safety, and since we have the space, I'd like to put you three up front. If you don't mind."

"No, that will be fine," Angela said.

"Good, Karen, will you show them to their seats then?"

"Yes, Sir."

Overall, the flight went smoothly. Only a few of the first class passengers eyed them suspiciously with their badges and a man in handcuffs, but nothing happened. Jacob was a well behaved criminal.

* * *

When they reached Chicago's O'Hare Airport Angela once again took hold of Jacob's arm and lead him through the airport behind another security guard and out the front doors with Skate following close behind with their bags. Together the three of them walked to the car rental agency next door where Skate went inside to rent a car while Angela and Jacob waited outside. With no one around to notice Angela took the handcuffs off Jacob's wrists. And that's when it happened.

"Angel, I don't feel good," Jacob winced.

"What's wrong?"

"I mean, I really don't feel good. I feel bruised. All over. I hurt."

Jacob leaned on her shoulder, using her body for support, to hold himself upright.

"As soon as Skate gets us a car we'll get you to the doctor's. Just hang in there."

"I don't think I can."

And then he collapsed.


	9. part 9

**The Net: Still Running: Chapter 9**

Angela caught Jacob as he fell and carefully lowered him to the ground.

"Jacob? Jacob speak to me! What's going on?"

"Angel, Angel...I hurt..."

Angela looked up, desperately searching for Skate when a rental car came speeding over to them and screeched to a halt a few feet away. Skate jumped out of the driver's seat.

"What happened?"

"I don't know!"

Skate opened the back door as Angela picked Jacob up into her arms and got him into the back seat of the car. She got in beside him and held him close as Skate sped away and followed her directions to the hospital.

* * *

Fifteen minutes later Skate pulled up in the Emergency Room parking lot and opened the door for Angela as she struggled to get Jacob out of the back seat. He was heavy, and still in pain as he moaned from her touch.

"Wait...let me get..."Skate began.

"No. I've got him."

Angela pulled him into her arms and made a mad dash towards the ER, thankful that the doors were automatic.

"Dr. Graff!" she called out, while reacquainting herself with the place. "Dr. Graff! Help! Dr. Graff!"

Jacob groaned louder as she ran around the ER, searching madly for the doctor who'd healed her bullet wound once, over a year ago.

"Dr. Graff!" Skate joined in, wanting to find this doctor as fast as possible. "Dr. Graff!"

"He's on break right now," one of the nurses told them before looking at Jacob, collapsed in Angela's arms. "Oh, you should get him on a gurney and I'll get Dr. Thompson to take a look at him. What happened?"

"No! I need Dr. Graff! Now!"

Angela, doing her best not to loose her grip on Jacob's heavy body, ran towards the break room and crashed through the doors.

Several nurses and a doctor jumped from their seats as the door banged open and Angela came through with Jacob in her arms and Skate right behind them.

The doctor did a double take when he saw her. "Angela?" He slowly stood up, still in shock at seeing her again.

"Dr. Graff, Please...you've got to help him!"

The doctor turned to the nurse beside him. "Get him on a gurney! ASAP!"

She ran out the door and disappeared in seconds.

"What happened? Who is he?" Dr. Graff asked, helping Angela to the floor to ease her load.

"I don't know what's happening. Those people who were chasing me, found him and shot him with these high tech tracking devices. He got them turned off, but they're still buried in his back. And he says he feels bruised all over."

Jacob gulped, and winced at the pain, a few tears falling out of his eyes. He gripped Angela hand. "Angel! Help!"

The gurney came and they loaded him onto it. He cried out as they laid him onto it, and Angela gripped his hand.

"It's OK, Jacob. We're here. You'll be fine soon."

"That's if I know what to do to get these things out of him. So, let me guess then, his identity has been stolen too?" Steven asked as he rushed Jacob into one of the ER rooms.

"Yes," Angela said. "You're right. His real name is Jacob."

"Right. And no one must know of his existence here. Right? And I'm going to go along with this again, because he's a friend of yours because you're a friend of this guy I used to play chess with online. Whom I haven't heard from in a long time by the way."

"He is the guy you played chess with."

"What? Sorcerer? No way."

Several nurses there helped Dr. Graff lift Jacob up off the gurney and onto the table in the ER. Jacob cried out again.

"He's too young. And his voice..."

"CD."

"What?"

"He used a CD to cover his voice and make it sound different. Doctor, this is Sorcerer. And you have to help him. No one must know he's here. Trust me. We'll be out of here as soon as he's better."

The nurses were helping the doctor get Jacob's clothes off so he could see what was wrong. When Jacob's shirt was off they couldn't see any bruising at all.

"You sure he said bruises? All over?"

"Yes. That's what he said."

The doctor gently rolled him over and was taken aback by the site of the high tech tracking devices buried in Jacob's back and the black skin that surrounded each one.

"Shit," Dr. Graff commented.

The nurses just stared unsure what to do, or what they were looking at.

"Angela, I'm afraid you can't be in here right now. I'll do my best to get them out. But I really don't know what I'm doing here," he said, putting on scrubs and getting ready to perform a surgery he'd never done before.

"Just do the best you can," Angela said, as Skate pulled her out of the room and over to the waiting room where he sat her down in a chair facing the TV mounted on the wall a few feet away.

Angela stared at the televison but didn't say anything to Skate.

"What if they come back?" he asked after a long while.

"What do you mean?"

"Those guys. In the trench coats. They did find us at the airport. True they didn't get on the plane with us or anything. But we were running from them the time we saw them before that. Maybe they didn't see me cause I was in the car, but you weren't."

"I can only pray they didn't recognize me. If they do find us here, you and I will have to draw them away to make sure Dr. Graff can do what he needs to. Keep him and Jacob safe. That's all. We're FBI now Skate. We can handle this."

"Right. I guess that's about the only thing we can do."

"I have to find a way to change his name back," Angela said, out of the blue.

"What do you mean? How are you going to do that?"

"I don't know. I have to find their main computer system but I've got a feeling these guys don't have one, don't need one. I don't think they've got a home base, if you know what I mean. And the home of the original Praetorians was shot to pieces, nothing left of it. I just don't know what to do."

"Don't worry, I'm sure we'll find a way."

"Right."

"Look, I'm gonna run down to the cafeteria and get a coffee. You want one?"

Angela sighed, "sure."

Skate got up and left. She put her head in her hands and thought about the ways she could erase Erin Jack and recreate Jacob Resh. She was FBI now. If she couldn't get to the original Praetorian mainframe, and she knew she couldn't, then maybe she could put him in witness protection or something. Change his name to Jacob and relocate him from New York to Washington state. Just maybe it would work.

_

* * *

__"Angela?" _

She looked up to see Dr. Graff standing there. He sat down beside her and she knew his news couldn't be good.

"I got them out."

She breathed a heavy sigh of relief.

"He needed stitches and he's on intense pain medication."

"But he'll be OK, won't he?"

"I honestly don't know. I put him in ICU. I have reason to believe that the bruising he was talking about was under the skin."

"What?"

"I really don't know what's going on with his body, what those things did to him. But you saw his black skin, it went further than just skin deep."

Angela looked away, at the tiles in the ceiling and then those on the floor.

"Can I see him?"

"I can't let you into his room, but yes, you can see him."

Dr. Steven Graff stood up and led Angela upstairs to the Intensive Care Unit where Jacob lay unconscious. Neither of them said a word in the elevator on the way up, letting the silence overwhelm them.

Standing outside Jacob's room, Angela watched him sleeping through a window and wished she could be there by his side, holding his hand, talking to him. But she wasn't allowed to enter. Only Dr. Graff was allowed in because of the strange situation.

The two of them stood there for a short while together, watching Jacob.

"I've got other patients to see to," Dr. Graff said, putting a soft hand on her shoulder in what little comfort he could offer. "You can stay here a while longer if you'd wish."

Angela nodded, and Steven turned away to head to the nurse's station.

Jacob's body on the other side of the glass jumped a few inches off the bed and when he landed again, the machine beside him emitted a long loud beep.

Dr. Graff spun back around and looked at Jacob before screaming, "He's flat lining! Get me a crash cart now!"

Several nurses down the hall moved into action and came running, the cart between them. Steven was already in the room when they got there.

"Get him to ER, there's nothing we can do for him here. Move!"

The nurses hoisted Jacob onto the cart while the doctor unhooked him from the surrounding machines.

"You're going to have to stay here or go to the waiting room," Steven said to Angela on their way to the Emergency Room.

"Will he be OK?" she called after him.

"I don't know," came the reply.

Angela turned to lean against the wall and slid down to the floor, hugging her knees as tears slipped down her face.

How long she sat there she had no idea. But no one bothered her as doctors and nurses rushed by in a hurry and other patient's friends and relatives walked by as if they'd been sedated or turned into zombies.

Then she heard the voice. That oddly familiar voice she'd been longing to hear.

"Angel? Angel, I'm right here. I'm not going to leave you. I promise."

Angela looked up, but didn't see anyone standing there. Didn't see Jacob at all. But she'd heard his voice.

"Angel, look up at me."

She looked up.

"Why are you crying. There's no reason to cry. I'm going to be fine. Together we'll crush the Praetorians, what's left of them anyway, and then we'll go back to normal lives. It'll be OK."

Angela shook her head. She was imagining things. She was imagining his voice. Did this mean his end was near? Tears blurred her eyes and she stared at the well worn floor tiles, at a mote of dust she was surprised had escaped the cleaning crew's immaculate work. But her surprise was only unconscious.

The Praetorians had gotten him. They had gotten who they wanted and now once they had learned of Jacob's demise they would stop chasing them. She and Skate could go back to Seattle on the next flight, and go back to their lives as FBI agents. But the trench coated men would disappear. There would be no chance at revenge. Jacob was still young. He'd hardly lived his life, and they'd taken that away from him. Taken his life away from her.

"Hey," the soft, soothing voice again.

Then a hand. Familiar fingers. They took her chin and lifted it upwards, as if forcing her to look into someone's eyes. Someone who wasn't there.

"Everything will be OK, Angel."

Another hand took the side of her face and the thumb swept her tears away. Switching hands, her other tears were swept away as well.

"I'm here with you," he said.

Lips softly brushed hers.

"And I always will be."

* * *

"Angela! Ang wake up!" another male voice broke into her thoughts.

She opened her eyes to find herself back in the waiting room and wondered who'd brought her there.

Skate was setting two cups of coffee on the side table beside her and he held an urgent look in his eyes.

"We've got Trenches coming! We gotta move!"

Angela bolted to her feet.

"Where? When?" Angela asked.

"Just now. I looked out the window as I came down the hall."

Angela moved her hand to her hip and felt the standard issue weapon at her side. Her other hand slid into her jacket pocket and found the three extra clips she'd thought to bring along. She looked up at Skate with a deadly seriousness in her eyes.

"This is it," she said. "I don't care what happens. They are going down. Now." She softened her look for just a second. "Skate, these people never went after you. If you want to get out now, you can."

"Not on your life! I'm in this till the end."

Angela nodded and unholstered her gun.

"Which way were they headed?"

"Around back."

Without another word Angela headed for the door with Skate right behind her. The anticipation grew within her. She knew this was it. This long awaited dream she'd been having would come true. She would get Jacob back. And the Praetorians would finally be brought down. Sean Trelawney, Mr. White, Mr. Olivier were wrong. The empire would indeed end, and she would be there to see it fall. Her face brightened into an almost evil smile, as she thought about the events to come. Both she and Skate had been trained for the FBI. Nothing could take them down.

Rushing out into the warm air, she cocked her weapon and heard Skate do the same. They tore around the huge hospital building, skirting around ambulances and police cars, looking for the leftover Praetorians, in cars, underneath them, around them, perhaps hiding in niches of the building. But they could not be found.

Angela refused to give up. She had had enough. It was time for them to go down.

"Up! Look up!" Skate called to her.

Angela looked up towards the roof of the hospital, a few stories up, and found the men they'd been searching for. One trench-coated man looked out over the edge of the building and saw them below. Another joined him when he motioned him over.

Skate aimed his weapon up at the first man, but was shocked when he saw the man hoist himself up onto the ledge and proceed to jump from the roof. Skate didn't move, keeping his weapon trained to the spot where the Trench had been.

"Skate! Move!" Angela grabbed his arm and hauled him back away from the building, as four other trench-coated men did the same as the first. Each one landed square on his feet and stood upright, ready for a fight, their large tracker guns in their hands. To Angela, the guns reminded her of those on the cover of a copy of Starship Troopers she'd read once in school, and she wasn't about to find out what damage they could do, besides what they'd already done to Jacob.


	10. part 10

**The Net: Still Running: Chapter 10**

Angela pulled Skate with her as she ran away from the hospital building and the jumping Trenches. Behind an ambulance, they hid from the Trenches view. She let go of his arm and checked to make sure all of her clips were in place. So far she hadn't fired a shot, but she wasn't going to go down with a full clip left in her gun. No way.

She looked over at Skate who was breathing heavily.

"You OK?"

"Yeah, fine."

Angela poked her head out to see the Praetorian Trenches coming towards them with a measured walk, as if they were in slow motion. Seeing her, one aimed his gun, but she was quicker, squeezing off a few rounds into the man's stomach. She watched him double over for a second before standing back upright and firing off a round. Angela hid behind the ambulance to avoid the shot, but the weapon he had was more than just a gun. The round hit the ambulance and she felt the vehicle rock with the force and then the explosion a second later. She covered her head and neck to avoid getting hit by flying debris before making a mad dash for cover further away.

"Shit, what was that?" Skate asked, when they'd found a new ambulance.

"I don't know. But I shot him, Skate. I know I did!"

She looked back to see all five Trenches still walking towards them in the same measured pace they'd been using all along. She returned to Skate.

"This is it. I'm going out there. I'm going to blast their heads off. And hope it doesn't come to hand to hand combat. If it does, then it does." Angela looked back to get a bearing on the Praetorians before dashing out there.

"Oh shit!"

"What?"

"Our boss is here! He's coming this way!"

"Boss? Our boss? You mean Walter? Walter Cizelski?" Skate asked in near confusion.

"Hi guys." Walter came around the ambulance and crouched with his two agents. "Mind telling me what's going on here? Who are those guys?"

"Long story. Can't really explain it," Angela said in a hurry to get back out there and kill the Trenches.

Skate piped up and spoke quickly, "basically, these are the remnants of the guys who changed her identity, and changed Jacob's. We found them going after Jacob, saved his life, he's in ER going through surgery, and now we're after these guys, looking to do them in. And, I think having another hand in this would help a great deal. These guys are nasty."

"I'm going out!" Angela called, and made a mad dash around the ambulance and into plain sight of the Trenches. She began firing her gun into another of the trench-coated men, unsure which one she'd hit previously because they all looked the same and none of them seemed to carry wounds at all. She emptied her gun into the trench and he went down, falling to his knees.

Reaching into her pocket she took another clip out, let the old one go, and slid the new one in, as another trench aimed his gun towards her and prepared to fire. She ducked and rolled, avoiding the missile like projection by a few inches. She came up in time to see the Trench she'd downed, get back up again. He had no wounds or injuries at all.

This was going to be harder than she'd imagined.

None of them had picked up their pace, they were so sure of themselves killing her and Jacob. Even as she ran, their pace never picked up, their long legs eating up the parking lot as they walked.

Bullets sounded from behind her, but not those of the Trenches. As Angela turned back for a brief second, she saw Skate and Walter coming out from either side of the ambulance firing every bullet they had together. She whipped back around, and while they had gotten the attention of the Trenches she dashed back towards them, hoping to somehow get one of their own weapons to kill them with. Obviously, her own standard issue FBI piece wasn't going to amount to a hill of beans in this mess.

She ran as hard as she could, and jumped onto the back of the last trench, and began to unclip the extra weapon strapped to his back. The Trench dropped the gun in his hands and reached over his head to grab her and pull her forward. Briefly she saw Walter motion Skate towards the fallen weapon as he kept their attention in the other direction.

Angela was launched forward, the Trench having a tight grip on her shoulders. Once she was over his head, he flipped her over and wrapped his arms around her stomach. Walter was engaging the other four Trenches, to keep them busy, while Skate had picked up the dropped weapon and heaved it onto his shoulders.

"Shoot him Skate!" Angela shouted.

He looked worried, trying to aim the large weapon that almost looked too big for him. But the Trench was holding Angela in front of him as a shield. If Skate missed the trench and killed Angela, the Trench's job would have been done easily, and he'd only have three more people to kill.

"Aim for his head! Do it!" she screamed, struggling in the Trench's arms to lower his head so that she would be slightly shielded herself and his head would be a better target.

"You can do it, Skate! Just shoot!"

The Trench held on tight, and refused to let her go, no matter how much she struggled. His muscles bulged in his arms and she wondered what would happen if she happened to bite him. But viewing what these guys were like, she doubted much would happen. He probably wouldn't even feel it.

Skate was still trying to aim the giant weapon on his shoulders, and she could see his hands shaking.

"Remember training, Skate. You're my last chance! I know you can do it!"

Skate looked up at her, a sudden calmness in his features. He looked at the Trench's head above hers and a fierceness came into his eyes. He pulled the trigger on the weapon, and the missile-like projection shot out towards Angela and the Trench. She pitched her body forward with all of her strength as the missile hit it's target and the Trench went down, roaring like an injured lion on the African plains.

He let go of Angela and she hit the ground rolling. Getting up she watched as the Trench stared at her, confused for a second, as a small metal spider clamped into his face and sunk into his skin. Two seconds later his head blew up. His body began to shake, and then was still before he collapsed.

"Nice job Skate!" Angela high-fived him before spinning around to see how Walter was faring.

Skate pulled the trigger on his weapon as he aimed it at another Trench but it wouldn't shoot. He pulled it again, and again it wouldn't shoot.

"I'll keep them busy. You figure that out!" Angela called, running towards Walter, who was slowly backing away from the four other Trenches as they advanced on him, in their calculated movements.

Upon seeing Angela approaching, one of them broke off from the group and began advancing on her.

"Oh shit," she said under her breath, as she began backing up.

Looking back, while keeping the corner of her eye trained on the Trench she carefully avoided Skate, and headed towards the building, intent on circling it in hopes of finding some way to take him out. The only way so far seemed to be his own weapon, but she didn't have one, and couldn't get one that easily. This was going to be tricky.

The Trench kept advancing on her, though he didn't aim his weapon and shoot her while he had the opportunity. None of them had. The only time they'd used their weapons, she realized, was to blast the ambulance away. To better see their quarry. And it began to make a little sense. These guys didn't want things simple, quick, and easy. If they had, Jacob would have been shot to death a long time ago and she'd be searching for him for the rest of her life. This guy wanted to trap her, and somehow make her life miserable. Though what he would do to her, and the others to Walter and Skate, she didn't know. But she thought it would be worse now that she had managed to get Jacob into the hospital and Skate had killed one of their own.

Angela backed up into a wall, and realized that what she'd been thinking about had come true. The Trench had her trapped. He smiled an evil smile, as she turned to see that she had indeed backed right up to the outer wall of the hospital. But luck was on her side after all. There was a door not three feet away!

She inched her way towards the opening, and slid through the small crack in the door she created. She dashed down the hall a short ways until she heard the door opening behind her. The Trench was coming inside. Angela began backing up again, in order to keep an eye on the Trench at the same time.

"What the..."

"You can't be in here with him! Get him out of here!"

Nurses, and doctors screamed in alarm, and ran in every direction, as Angela continued down the hall, backward, her gun trained on the trench, knowing it would do know good. But also knowing it was her only hope. Her only chance.

"Clear the hall!" Angela shouted to anyone who happened to be behind her. "Clear the hall! Coming through!"

There were more frightened screams, as people ran, and carts and wheelchairs were moved out of the way, by hands reaching from doorways.

Angela turned a corner and kept going, kept shouting. Though by now all the hallways seemed to have emptied of people and anything else that might have been in her way. The trench, calmly walked with Angela, following her every move, but still refusing to aim his weapon or attack her in any other manner. It seemed as if he was waiting for her to crumble in front of him. The way he kept following her, with such steadiness, and never backed down, with the size of his body and his weapons, he expected her to fall before him, afraid of him, before he came down on her. But she wasn't about to crumble in front of him. When it came to Jacob's life she would do anything to keep him alive. And she wasn't afraid of anything. Least of all a large bald man dressed in a long trench coat carrying a huge weapon. Or several of these men. Especially when they refused to use their weapons. This was only giving her a chance to kill him. She just had to find that chance.

The hospital had become silent since she'd entered with the Trench and she could easily hear heart monitors beeping, and a few whispers from darkened rooms as she passed by.

"Tweezers, please," she heard a familiar male voice say, and she knew where she was.

Looking to her left, she walked past the only room that had lights on inside. Dr. Steven Graff looked up to see her go by with her gun drawn, still trained on the Trench. Without a single hesitation he went back to the complicated surgery he was performing.

"Hang in there, Jacob," she whispered to the unconscious figure on the operating table. "Just hang in there."

Her eyes back on the Praetorian following her, she continued to lead him through the hospital, not knowing where she was going. He held his weapon across his chest and it never moved once. The man didn't even seem to be breathing at all. Only his legs and feet moved. The rest of him seemed to be one solid unmoving mass. Except for his eyes. No matter which way she went, his eyes always followed her and his feet led him to her, one step at a time.

A bright light suddenly filled the hallway as she made a right hand turn. Glancing behind her Angela saw two double glass doors. She swung her head back around to watch the Trench as she backed toward the doors. Together they swung outwards, as she approached, and a few seconds later she was back outside, relieved that nothing had happened inside with so many innocent people. And with Jacob.

"Ang! Look out!" Skate's voice caught her attention just as something caught her left foot.

She stumbled over something and fell backwards. Bullets rang out into the air, taking the Trench's attention away from Angela. When she looked up she saw Skate firing his gun in the general direction of the Trench who'd been following her. Then she looked to see what she'd tripped over and saw one of the Trenches own weapons. Her chance had arrived. Without a moment to loose she swiped it off the ground, surprised at it's heaviness, and swung it up onto her shoulder, her knees almost buckling at the heavy weight.

The missile-like projection fired off not even a second after she'd pulled the trigger and she watched as the Trench went down on his knees. A metal spider clamped onto his chest before digging it's claw-like legs into his skin. Moments later, his face a picture of confusion and agony, the Praetorian Trench let out a lion's howl before falling to his death.

"Nice job Angela," Walter congratulated her.

She let the weapon fall to the ground with a loud thump before she saw Walter and Skate coming over to her. Two other Trenches lay sprawled on the pavement. And the others didn't seem to be anywhere nearby, whether they were alive or not.

"What happened to the other two?" she asked.

"Don't know," Skate said. "They disappeared while we were dealing with the other one. Managed to kill him, though it took some dealing."

"So, why'd they leave? That doesn't make sense?"

"I can't answer that either," Walter said.

"I'm guessing they went to get more reinforcements when they realized how tough we are. Either that, or they went to tell their boss that we were beating their butts pretty good."

"Their boss is dead. They're not telling Mr. White what went down just now," Angela pointed out.

"And they don't need reinforcements," Walter said. "Not with the strength these guys have."

"Well, we did kick their butts. But still..."

Angela heaved a heavy sigh before leaning against one of the white pillars holding up the portico. Fishing around in her pocket she came out with a cigarette and her lighter.

Walter looked at her in surprise. "Since when do you smoke?" he asked.

"Long story."

"Yeah, everything with you is a long story."


	11. part 11

**The Net: Still Running: Chapter 11**

"I'm sorry Walter," Angela said, looking into the eyes of her suspicious boss, while still being well aware of the Trenches bodies around them in a public place. "So, why don't you tell us what you're doing here. How'd you find us? And why?"

"My boss, Jane Faraday, whom you haven't met yet, called to tell me that my two agents apparently had Erin Jack in custody and were on a plane headed for Chicago. See, you didn't turn in your badge and weapon when you quit, so technically you're still FBI. She wanted to know why you were going to Chicago. I happened to be nearby working on a case, which I'm glad I was, since you didn't answer your cell phones when I called. So, I tracked you down. And here I am. Now, I've told my half of the story. You need to tell yours. What happened to Erin Jack, and who are these guys?"

"Walter, it's a long story," Angela began.

He gave her a angered look.

"I'm just warning you, Walter. You know about the Praetorians, who went after me. Who changed my identity, my life. It was all a front. Because I'd gotten an email I wasn't supposed to see, they thought I had ties with Sorcerer, and were using me to get to him. All they wanted was Sorcerer. But in the process I found out about their dealings so they couldn't leave me alone. Sorcerer, Jacob, thought that once they were on to me, he could help me get rid of them and they would never find out about him. Well, near the end, they did. They learned that Jacob Resh and Sorcerer were one in the same. Just before we took them down. However, they had a contingency plan, in case something should happen to them. They created the Trenches here, how I don't know. Who they really are, I don't know either. But these guys were sent out to get rid of every last person who knew anything about the Praetorians. Basically, if they died before they caught Sorcerer, there was no way he was going to escape their grasp. And so these Trenches followed him, put trackers in him. And he ran from them all this time. Until I found him. And we've been running from them ever since."

"So, why here? Why did you come all the way to Chicago?"

"Because there's a doctor here who used to play chess with Sorcerer online. And once, when I was shot, he told me to come here, that the doctor would help me, without going to the police. What these Trenches did to Jacob, was so...so...no other doctor would have done anything to save him. I knew we had to bring him here."

"And Erin Jack? Where's he in all of this?"

"Just before we stormed the Praetorian's headquarters when I got my own identity back, they figured out who Sorcerer was. And they changed his name. To Erin Jack. He's innocent Walter. He hasn't done anything that they've said he has. Those messages were fakes from the Trenches. They were hoping we'd catch him and turn him over to them. The same thing Trelawney tried with me."

The look on Walter's face was skeptical.

"I know it's hard to believe. But it's true!"

Angela put out the small stub left of her cigarette just as several state police cars sped into the parking lot and came to a screeching halt.

"Walter, we need to keep this under wraps. I don't want the wrong people to see these Trenches, or their weapons. In fact, I want a look at one of those guns. I want to learn how it works, how it ticks. We still have two more of them to go after."

Walter nodded as he turned to the policemen.

"Skate, I need you to do me a huge favor."

"Anything."

"I need to go look at those guns, figure them out. But I don't want to leave Jacob either. Will you stay here, and keep an eye on him? My cell phone's on. Call me if anything happens. OK?"

"Yeah, sure."

Angela watched Skate turn and enter the hospital before joining Walter with the state police.

"We've got a few weapons experts on staff, sure," one of them was saying.

"Great, I need to meet them, take a look at these guns," Angela said.

"You go with them, I'll wait for the coroner," Walter suggested. "Where's Tim?"

"He's waiting for news on Jacob. Told him to call me if anything happens."

Walter made a face that clearly said he didn't want Skate waiting around, and that Jacob would be just fine without him, but he went with it just the same.

"Thanks Walter," she said, picking up a gun and throwing it over her shoulder as she approached the rental car and prepared to follow one of the police cruisers to the station.

* * *

A few hours later, after having received no phone calls from Skate, Angela left the police station and headed back to the hospital.

Walter was in the waiting room, slouched in a chair, having gotten back from the coroners awhile ago. He looked tired, as if he didn't want to be there. Skate was sitting in the chair opposite him, avidly watching the evening news.

"Skate, how's Jacob?" Angela asked, trying not to disturb Walter, who had his eyes closed, and might have been asleep.

"Doc says he's out of surgery, and thinks he'll be just fine. We're just waiting for him to wake up now."

Angela sat down, with a relieved thump as Walter opened his eyes and struggled to sit up.

"How did it go with the weapons experts?"

"It went well. I gave them a project to do. They're still working on it. Said they might be done day after tomorrow."

"Don't you think that might be too late?"

"It's a chance I'll have to take."

"What are they doing anyway?" Skate asked.

"Creating a new weapon to deal with the Trenches."

"Ah! Angela, you're back," Dr. Graff came over. "I assume you heard how Jacob's doing?"

"Yes, Doctor, thank you. Thank you so much for everything."

"Just doing my job. Now he hasn't woken up yet, but I can still let you in to see him, if you want."

"Yes, please."

When they reached Jacob's room, Angela realized that both Skate and Walter had followed them. Dr. Graff quietly stepped out of the way and disappeared down the hall as she stood in the doorway and saw Jacob hooked up to several machines. From the corner of her eye she saw Skate throw a hand out and hold Walter back, to give her some alone time with Jacob, as she stepped into the room.

She remembered the claws digging into his back, remembered the pain he was in, remembered him collapsing into her arms and carrying him through the hospital looking for Dr. Graff. Tears slipped down her face as she sat down beside his bed and took his hand in hers. Her vision was blurred so badly she could hardly make out his body.

"Angel?" that voice. That familiar voice.

She wiped her tears away, and saw Jacob looking up at her, his eyes blinking.

"Jacob?"

Angela reached out and gave him a fierce hug.

"I was so afraid I'd lost you. Thank God you're alright. I can't lose you. I just can't."

"I'm here with you, Angel. And I always will be. Don't you ever forget that." And it was the same thing she'd heard before. When Dr. Graff had been rushing him from ICU back to the ER. It was the same thing. The same voice. The man she loved so much.

"I won't. I promise."

Angela sat back down in the chair, and a smile broke across her face accompanied by a short laugh.

"How are you?" he asked.

"I'm ok. I just...I got scared. I was afraid I'd loose you," she said, her hands shaking a little, both at the relief of knowing he was going to be ok, and at the fear that she could have lost him forever.

Angela reached into her pocket for her pack of cigarettes, and brought out an empty box. A small cry of anguish escaped her lips.

"You're in a hospital, you know." Jacob said with a half smile as he rested his hand on hers, and looked deep into her eyes. "Everything's going to be ok."

Her hands stopped shaking at his touch. "I'm sorry."

"You've got nothing to be sorry for. I would have done the same in your shoes. Don't worry Angel. I'm fine and we'll get the last of the Praetorians. And then it will all be over."

"We actually got a lead on those Trenches."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. We killed three of them this afternoon," she said much calmer now. "There's only two left. But we'll get them."

"I think I must be dead," Jacob said all of a sudden.

"What do you mean?"

"I'm looking at a beautiful Angel. I think I saw God earlier. But he was wearing scrubs for some reason. Can you tell me why God was wearing scrubs?"

Angela bit her lip in a smile, and laughed as she leaned in closer to give him another hug. "Oh Jacob, I love you so much."

"I love you too," he whispered.

* * *

Two days later Jacob was being discharged from the hospital against Dr. Graff's wishes.

"Jacob, you're not well enough to leave just yet," the doctor pleaded. "Just a few more days and then I can let you go. Just a few more days."

"No. I can't do that, this is something I have to do. You do not understand. There are still bad guys out there that need dealing with. And my identity is still out of the loop. These things I have to fix."

"Jacob," Angela broke in. "I can deal with everything. You just stay here and get some rest."

"I can't, Angel. I won't. I have to go out there. I won't leave you to fight those guys alone."

"Alright. Let me go talk to Walter, you get dressed and I'll be back to get you in a few minutes."

"Angela, he's not ready to leave!" Dr. Graff exclaimed.

When they were out of the room and out of Jacob's earshot Angela said, "This is something you might not understand. There's nothing you can do. If something happens to me out there, he doesn't want me to go out alone."

"But what about your boss and...and..."

"Without him, is what he means. And, if I were in his place, I would be thinking the same thing."

Angela found Walter and Skate in the waiting room.

"Jacob and I are going to New York City this afternoon. We're going to need plane tickets."

"What?"

"Why?"

"We need to get his identity back, and the only way to do that is to find Trelawney's computer in evidence."

"Is he ok to go?" Skate asked.

"He wants to go and there's nothing I can say to change his mind."

Angela turned and went back to Jacob's room. Dr. Graff was there, helping Jacob to get dressed. In his shirtless state she saw the amount of thick bandages covering his chest and back.

"You're going to have to be very careful," the doctor was saying. "Your back has stitches in three different places, and if you should happen to pop one..."

"I know, I know."

"Don't worry, doc, I'll take good care of him."

"Good," Dr. Graff said, sliding Jacob's shirt on over his head before leaving the two of them alone.

"Jacob, I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to arrest you one more time for this. I promise this will be the last time I ever put you in handcuffs."

"Angel, you could put cuffs on me for very different reasons and I would be more than ok with it."

"Angela," Walter called from the doorway. "Can I talk to you a second?"

"What's up?" she asked, joining him in the hallway.

"I got you a private plane. Leaves in one hour."

"Thank you Walter."

"It's the least I could do after everything you've been through. Do you want me to go with you? Or Skate?"

"No, we'll be fine. This is just something we need to do for ourselves. But there is one thing you can do for me, if you wouldn't mind."

"Sure. What?"

"There's a priest in Washington, at least that's what he claims to be. If you wouldn't mind picking him up on your way back to Seattle, and arresting him for attempted rape, that would be awesome."

"Angela? What are you talking about?"

"I don't want to go into details. Not here. Not now. But he did try."

She showed him the scars left on her wrists where she'd been tied to the bed that dark night.

"Oh God."

"I'm fine, Walter. Kicked his ass. But he's still up and walking around."

"I'll take care of him, don't worry."

"Thanks."

Walter disappeared down the hall just as Skate appeared in front of her.

"Ang, there's something I need to talk to you about."

"What?"

"While you two are in New York, I'm going to move out."

"What? Skate, you don't have to do that. I don't want to put you out on the street."

"It's Tim now. And yes. Yes, I do. It's time I moved out on my own for once. Time I grew up. And I know my place and where Jacob fits into everything. We can't both be in the same place, Ang. You know I would do anything for you and that's what good FBI agents do for each other. But he loves you more than anything in the world, even I can see that. And I can't take that away from him. I won't."

Angela couldn't say anything. Didn't know what to say. She nodded.

"I'll see you when you guys get back to Seattle then," he said, and forced a smile. "Good luck in New York."

"Yeah, thanks."


	12. part 12

**The Net: Still Running:** **Chapter 12**

On the way to the airport Angela met up with the two weapons experts who handed her a belt with two holsters. They both contained brand new weaponry and she pulled one gun out to survey their work before sliding it back into it's holster with a grin, and strapping it on.

* * *

Landing at the small airport in New York, Angela kept a tight grip on Jacob as she helped him slowly descend the stairs. Once at the bottom, she told the pilot to be ready to go in five hours. He nodded and climbed back into the plane to taxi off the runway, while Angela and Jacob waited for their car to pick them up. 

While they waited something else came for them instead. Two large men approached, wearing long concealing trench coats, carrying big weapons across their chests.

"Angel...I can't run...I can't..."

"I've got them, don't worry," Angela said, a seriousness coming over her that he'd never seen before.

Gently, she let him fall to the ground, to make him a smaller target before standing up right, ready to face the last two Praetorians head on. Together they walked toward her in their same steady stride, but she refused to move. And they came closer, and closer, slowly closer with every step. She could feel Jacob behind her on the ground, could feel his love for her emanating from him, and the strength building up within her own body, the strength to protect him at all costs.

The Trenches stopped only a few yards away, and aimed their large weapons at Angela, knowing she was protecting their quarry. Without another thought, she dropped to the ground, avoided being shot by a tracker, and rolled, coming up with both sleek new guns drawn and aimed at her targets. Within seconds she'd pulled both triggers, and watched as missile-like projections shot out and hit both Trenches. Metal spiders clung to them, their claw-like legs digging into both men's skin. They went down, like a knife cutting through butter.

"Nice work!" Jacob exclaimed just as their car finally arrived. "I didn't know you were that talented with weapons."

She reholstered the guns and helped Jacob back onto his feet. "It's all in the training."

"Um, what happened here?" The driver asked, surveying the two dead Praetorians.

"Long story, I can't explain it," Angela said. "You must be Angent Mackey, I presume?"

"Ah, yes. And you're Agent Bennett? Is that," he looked at Jacob. "Is that really Erin Jack? You caught Erin Jack?!"

"No. This is not Erin Jack," she said. "Now look, I need you to do me a favor. We can find our way around the city no problem. What I need you to do is call FBI headquarters and get the coroner out here. Have him call my boss Walter, head of CIC, and he'll get the facts from him, about what to do with the bodies. OK? You just stay here with them, make sure nothing happens to them. Got that?"

"Yeah, yeah sure."

"Good."

* * *

"We're going to need a hotel room," Angela commented in the car on the way to FBI headquarters in New York City. 

"Why?"

"Because that agent recognized you as Erin Jack, wanted criminal."

"Yeah, well, I find it amazing he recognized me, but not Liz Marx."

"Jacob. I'm only thinking of your safety. Besides, you won't be allowed inside Evidence Lockup anyway because you're not an agent."

He sighed. "Oh, fine."

"You know, it was bad enough when I was Liz Marx, and you were only Sorcerer. I had to do all this on my own, creating new identities along the way. You're one lucky man, to have me on your team, cause I am FBI. This stuff comes easily now. Besides, I still have that cd you gave me ages and ages and ages ago. Don't you worry, I'll have you a new identity in no time!"

Jacob smiled. "You know, I always knew you were going places."

* * *

Showing the agent on duty her ID, Angela was buzzed into Evidence Lockup, where she began searching for Sean Trelawney's computer from Praetorian Headquarters. Luckily, it was about the only thing there that hadn't been blown to bits. Searching the dates on each of the evidence boxes, she finally found the one she was looking for. Several boxes were marked with the case number and the date. She pulled them all down and opened each one on a nearby table, reading the tags attached to everything within each box. 

"Computer located in private office" read the tag she was looking for and she lifted the heavy computer out of the box and began to set it up. She slipped Jacob's cd into the drive and waited for the proper screen to pop up. She'd already put a virus on the computer when she had altered her own identity, and now it was still working in her favor.

"Sean, you are the butter," Angela said to the computer. "And I am the knife."

She pulled up Erin Jack's records and inserted the name Jacob Gabriel Resh, along with the rest of his important information. Hitting the enter key, she changed Jacob's identity back to his own. But before she put the computer away, she pulled up another file, and entered in some new code while taking out some of the original. Now, both her file and Jacob's was permanent. No one could tamper with either one and change their identities ever again.

Satisfied, she unhooked the computer and put it back in it's box before heading back to the hotel, where Jacob waited for her, probably bored out of his mind watching tv.

* * *

"I've got good news!" Angela exclaimed, opening the hotel room door. 

No one greeted her exclamation. The tv was off and there was no other sound within the room. Angela opened the door further and walked in, wild thoughts flying through her mind of kidnappers, other creepy men the Praetorians might have hired should the Trenches fail.

But Jacob was there after all, sleeping soundly. Angela's heart melted as she lay down beside Jacob and watched him sleep, letting him get the rest he needed. On the night stand was the journal she'd used to write to Jacob. So he'd had the chance to read it. She'd written a lot of personal things in it. But nothing she didn't want him to know. He needed to know those things.

Angela wrapped an arm around him gently as he slept. She had him back. And on top of that, he wasn't going to leave her ever again, either by force or by his own choice._"I'm here with you, Angel. And I always will be. Don't you ever forget that." _There wasn't a chance in hell she'd ever forget him saying that. Or his words after that: _"I love you too."_ Who knew she would have fallen for a handsome guy nine years younger than her? Age didn't matter though. Nothing else mattered except that he was with her and he was ok. She didn't have to worry anymore. And if they did end up growing old together, when she became an old wrinkled prune, she could smile and laugh at all the other old wrinkled prunes who had equally wrinkled prunes for husbands while hers was still young and handsome. The thought alone made her smile as she curled up closer to Jacob and waited for him to wake up. He'd pretty much said he was hers, after all.

* * *

Jacob's beautiful blue eyes blinked open. 

"Hey, you didn't wake me?" he asked groggily.

"It's been a long day and you needed your rest."

"How'd it go?"

"You're a free man, Jacob Gabriel Resh," Angela said with a smile.

"Ah, thank you!"

"You know what this means?"

"It's over."

"It's over. The Praetorians are gone. Every last one of them. And we both have our correct identities. I feel like we should be celebrating somehow, but nothing seems appropriate."

"I already am celebrating. Just by being here with you, and knowing it's all over. You know, I'll be celebrating for the rest of my life. Every time I take a plane somewhere, every time I go out in public and don't have to hide myself anymore."

"That's a great feeling. I think I might finally get to enjoy it myself."

With his back still numb from the painkillers, Jacob carefully rolled onto his side so that he could face her better.

"I read your journal."

"And?"

Angela tried not to look too scared. After all, everything she'd written was meant for Jacob to read. Everything. But she was still a little squeamish at the thought of what his opinions would be.

"It means a lot to me that you did that," he said. "I wish I could have been there. I missed your graduation. And I wasn't there to hold you together when everything fell apart. I wasn't there to kick that priest's ass either, but you did, so that's ok. By the way...you go girl! You kicked some guys ass, and that rocks!"

Angela grinned. "Glad you think so."

"And you being an FBI agent is cool. Ultra cool. I still can't believe it. I hope you thanked Sean for that one, because if it wasn't for the Praetorians, you wouldn't have this awesome job."

"I did thank Sean. I thanked him for bringing you and me together. I wouldn't want to be running away from trouble with anyone else in this world."

"Awww thanks, hun."

"So, what now? What are your plans?"

"My plans?"

"You haven't finished high school yet. And what about college?"

"I've got half a school year left to finish. If I finish that I can apply to Washington State University. That's near you."

"Are you sure you want to do that?"

Jacob looked deep into her eyes before responding. "Yes, I'm sure."

Angela smiled.

"You know, all those months running from the Trenches without you, I thought I was going insane. I got used to waking up with you, having someone there beside me fighting the bad guys. Not having you with me...I tried to forget you," he whispered as a single tear rolled down his cheek to soak the pillow beneath his head. "Tried to go on. You had your life back and I didn't want to get in the way of that. I'd already ruined it once. But I missed you too much."

Angela rested her hand against his face and wiped his tears away with her thumb.

"You didn't ruin my life Jacob. You made it that much better. And I couldn't be any happier right now."

He smiled through his tears just as Angela's cell phone went off.

"Damn, it's probably Walter," she said, picking it up. "Hello? Yes...oh, right...we're on our way, sorry."

Jacob dried his eyes while she talked. When she hung up he looked at her quizzically.

"Pilot. We're late."

"And I was comfortable too," he complained, when she pulled him off the bed, laughing.

As Angela opened the door Jacob took her hand in his and they went out into the world together.

THE END

A/N: I hope you enjoyed this story, and again, I'm soooo sorry it took me so long to finish it! But it's done now, and please feel free to post any comments. I like to know how I'm doing, so if you found something that needs editing, let me know. And of course, if you really liked it, I want to know that too!

Two notes about this story: one, I know Eric Szmanda has brown eyes but I gave him blue here, sorry about that! The sequel will have them brown, and hopefully I'll get that fixed here someday soon. Two, Originally, before I took this chapter down for editing and completion, it was unfinished at chapter 12. When it was completed, the chapters were realigned and now it finishes at 12 chapters, which is why one comment says "please continue" at the last chapter.

Also for your information there might be a sequel coming out sometime in the future called "I'll Be Your Angel". It was hand written a long time ago for the show, before this piece was ever even dreamed of. So, if it does become a sequel to this, it's going to need some major updating to flow with this piece, as well as to be typed up in the first place! You want a short description of it? Here you go: "Angela is injured in the line of duty and possibly disabled for the rest of her life. Will she be able to keep her job and will the only guy she's ever loved stick by her side through the pain?" Written up on the fly, so it's not perfect, but let me know what you think! Do you want to read this story? I'd love to hear your reactions! Thanks all!

And thanks for reading Still Running, even if you don't post a comment, and especially if you started reading it years ago before I finished it. Sorry for the wait, and thanks for sticking with it! You guys rock!


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